SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

This paper presents a framework for evaluating mechanisms that involve the public in environmental decision-making. These include traditional participatory mechanisms--such as public hearings, notice and comment procedures, and advisory committees--as well as those considered more innovative--such as regulatory negotiations, mediations, and citizen juries. The framework is based on a set of "social goals," defined as those goals which are valued outcomes of a participatory process, but which transcend the immediate interests of any party in that process. The goals are: educating the public, incorporating public values and knowledge into decision-making, building trust, reducing conflict, and assuring cost-effective decision-making. The paper begins with a...

Public Participation in Environmental Planning in the Great Lakes Region

Palavras-chave: Public participation; Alternative dispute resolution; Consensus building; Public hearing; Advisory committee; Regulatory negotiation; Mediation; Evaluation; Trust; Social capital; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10497

Beierle, Thomas C.; Konisky, David M..

The need for greater public involvement in environmental decision-making has been highlighted in recent high-profile research reports and emphasized by leaders at all levels of government. In some cases, agencies have opened the door to greater participation in their programs. However, there is relatively little information on what can be gained from greater public involvement and what makes some programs work while others fail. This paper addresses these questions through an evaluation of public participation in environmental planning efforts in the Great Lakes region. The success of participation is measured using five criteria: educating participants, improving the substantive quality of decisions, incorporating public values into decision-making,...

Environmental Information Disclosure: Three Cases of Policy and Politics

Palavras-chave: Public participation; Advisory committees; Evaluation; Great Lakes; Remedial Action Planning; Comparative risk; Conflict resolution; Trust; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10578

One of the most notable innovations in environmental management in the past 15 years has been the use of environmental information disclosure as a strategy for improving firms environmental performance. Following the Environmental Protection Agencys success with the Toxics Release Inventory, the agency and Congress initiated a number of other disclosure initiatives. This discussion paper documents the experience of three of these: risk management planning, materials accounting, and the Sector Facility Indexing Project. The paper examines the benefits and costs of these programs, their effectiveness, and the dynamics by which disclosure works.

From Uruguay to Doha: Agricultural Trade Negotiations at the World Trade Organization

Palavras-chave: Disclosure; Toxics Release Inventory; Risk management planning; Materials accounting; Sector Facility Indexing Project; Right-to-know; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q28.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10527

This paper examines current agricultural trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, with particular attention to the relationship between liberalization and developing countries' economic growth and food security. Agriculture remains one of the most highly protected arenas of international trade. The cost of such protection falls particularly hard on developing countries, where agriculture typically accounts for a much higher share of economic output, exports, and employment than in developed countries. Although the 1994 Uruguay Round of trade talks succeeded in bringing agriculture into the rules-based trading system, it did little to actually reduce agricultural trade protection. This paper describes how three important actors in the...

Evaluating Dispute Resolution as an Approach to Public Participation

Palavras-chave: Trade; Agriculture; World Trade Organization (WTO); General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); International Relations/Trade; F130.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10491

Beierle, Thomas C.; Cayford, Jerry.

Public participation has become an integral part of environmental policymaking. Dispute resolution-with its focus on deliberation, problem solving, and consensus seeking among a small group of people-is one of the alternatives decision-makers increasingly turn to for involving the public. This paper evaluates dispute resolution as a form of public participation by measuring its success against five "social goals": incorporating public values into decisions, increasing the substantive quality of decisions, resolving conflict, building trust, and educating the public. The data for the analysis come from a "case survey," in which researchers read and coded information on more than 100 attributes of 239 published case studies of public involvement in...

Discussing the Rules: Electronic Rulemaking and Democratic Deliberation

Palavras-chave: Dispute resolution; Public participation; Conflict resolution; Evaluation; Institutional and Behavioral Economics.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10899

Of all recent efforts to transform the federal bureaucracy through the use of information technology, electronic rulemaking holds the most potential for enhancing the role of the public in policymaking. In its more expansive formulation, electronic rulemaking would allow citizens to learn about proposed regulations on the Web, comment on them electronically, read comments by others, and even discuss relevant issues with fellow citizens and agency staff. This paper outlines what we should expect from public involvement in electronic rulemaking, concluding that its promise lies in embedding democratic deliberation into administrative decision-making. The current move to put rulemaking dockets online, while important, is likely to fall short of electronic...

The Benefits and Costs of Environmental Information Disclosure: What Do We Know About Right-to-Know?

Palavras-chave: Rulemaking; Public participation; Electronic democracy; Electronic dockets; Deliberation; E-government; Political Economy.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10681

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies removed information from their websites that they feared could invite attacks on critical public and private infrastructure. Accordingly, the benefits and costs of environmental information disclosure programs have come under increasing scrutiny. This paper provides a framework for examining these benefits and costs, and illustrates the framework through three brief case studies of information disclosure programs: risk management planning, materials accounting, and the Sector Facility Indexing Program. The paper closes by using these three cases to outline what we know and still need to find out about information disclosure programs.

The Quality of Stakeholder-Based Decisions: Lessons from the Case Study Record

Palavras-chave: Disclosure; Toxics Release Inventory; Risk management planning; Materials accounting; Sector Facility Indexing Project; Right-to-know; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q28.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10840

The increased use of stakeholder processes in environmental decision-making has raised concerns that the inherently "political" nature of such processes may sacrifice substantive quality for political expediency. In particular, there is concern that good science will not be used adequately in stakeholder processes nor be reflected in their decision outcomes. This paper looks to the case study record to examine the quality of the outcomes of stakeholder efforts and the scientific and technical resources stakeholders use. The data for the analysis come from a "case survey," in which researchers coded information on over 100 attributes of 239 published case studies of stakeholder involvement in environmental decision-making. These cases reflect a diversity of...

Electronic Democracy and Environmental Governance: A Survey of the States

Palavras-chave: Public participation; Stakeholder; Science; Alternative dispute resolution; Consensus building; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10686

Beierle, Thomas C.; Cahill, Sarah.

Just as information technology is rapidly changing how we work, shop, and play, it is changing how we practice democracy. This paper focuses on one area where the Internet is broadening public participation in governance: the administration of environmental laws and regulations. It describes a survey of how each of the 50 states is using the Internet to provide citizens with environmental information, gather public input on agency decisions, and foster networks of interested citizens. As "laboratories for democracy," the states may be the source of ideas and experience that anticipate how environmental governance at all levels of government will change over the next decade. The survey results suggest that electronic democracy in state-level environmental...

The Federal Advisory Committee Act and Public Participation in Environmental Policy

Palavras-chave: Public participation; Electronic democracy; Internet; State government; Electronic rulemaking; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10700

Long, Rebecca J.; Beierle, Thomas C..

This paper discusses the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and how it affects public participation in environmental decision-making. Passed in 1972 as one of the "openness in government" laws, FACA governs how the federal government seeks outside advice. It has had a profound influence on who participates in government decision-making, when they participate, how they participate, and what influence participation has on policy. FACA has had a number of notable successes. Primary among these has been its role in limiting the unbalanced influence of special interests, acting through advisory committees, on public policy-making. The advisory committees which the law governs have also achieved a number of the "social goals" of public participation,...