We define participatory approaches as institutional settings where the public and/or stakeholders of different types are brought together to participate more or less directly, and more or less formally, in some stage of the decision-making process. Stakeholders are deemed to be of different types if, for a given issue, they hold different worldviews, and act on the basis of different rationales. Hence, participation refers to the implication in the decision-making process of persons external to the formal politico-administrative circle. In the environmental domain, participation was visibly introduced in the EU 1993 Fifth Environment Action Programme. In its successor – the 2002 Sixth Environment Action Programme – participatory environmental governance has been fully taken on board through systematic inclusion.
In parallel, participation is directly integrated in an increasing number of Community legal instruments such as the Water Framework Directive. The legal frame for European biodiversity policy, though, is mainly conceived without public or interest group participation. On the paper, the selection criteria for the Natura 2000, the main instrument of the Habitat Directive, sites were based on ecological or conservation criteria only. In practice, selection of the sites mostly happened in an informal participatory way, addressing mostly local economic interests before reporting the sites. Non-participatory reporting is starting to result in costly court procedures.
GoverNat analyses how the legal frame influences participation, and the effects of participation on information management, legitimacy, social dynamics, and costs. At least for natural resources, an enhanced participation may lower the implementation deficit of EU environmental legislation, stated by the European Commission in its 2004 Environmental Policy Review. By addressing decision tools and processes for participatory environmental governance, GoverNat directly links in with the Union's priorities and implementation of its policies, and it is a timely answer to the need for further research, training and dissemination on ways of implementing such governance in Europe.
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