Public Consultation and Participation

The overall goal of public consultation is to engage key stakeholders’ groups such as citizens, NGOs, agencies, authorities and interest groups to provide their input into the planned development and especially on those impacts that directly or indirectly affect people’s livelihoods. Moreover, by involving key stakeholders’ inputs in the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) the planned project is strengthened by these inputs.

Effective public participation requires that project planners (Aschemann, 2004):

• Inform and involve interested and affected actors like citizens, public authorities and interest groups.
• Explicitly address their comments, concerns and inputs, both, in documentation and decision making.
• Ensure that all relevant actors and parties are involved or at least represented.
• Safeguard sufficient access to all relevant documents and information concerning the project and the EIA documentation.