ROLE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPAITON IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSENT IN THAILAND

Abstract

An integration of public participation in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) issignificant in terms of its implication for sound decision and a sustainability of development projects.Accordingly, the Thai EIA system provides a public participation process for stakeholders in an assessmentand review of the EIA study process. There are a number of different participatory techniques to facilitatepublic participation. However, in Thailand traditional public participation methods like public hearing ispreferred. The public hearing process in the Thai context, stakeholders including the project proponents andthe opponents are brought together in a forum to express their view points and recommendations for theproposed projects in order to influence the decision-making process. Frequently, this process leads to violentconflict among stakeholders. This study aimed at trying to close the gap between regulators and civilcommunities with respect to public participation in the Thai EIA system. A case study approach was appliedfor this study. The study revealed that appropriate public participation is essential and may lead to enormousbenefits for the proponents and stakeholders. Where public participation is ignored and ineffective conducted,environmental conflicts and problems may be created for project implementation and sustainability.