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37 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is Public Participation in EA? |
1. Public participation refers to the involvement of individuals and groups that are positively or negatively affected by a proposed intervention subject to a decision-making process or are interested in it 2. The active involvement of the public in the EA process through various means, ranging from open houses to panel reviews 3. a process of engagement, where ppl are enlisted into the decision process to contribute to it...provide for exchange of info, predictions, opinions, interests and values...and those initiating the process are open to the potential need for change and are prepared to work to develop plans or amend or even drop existing proposals |
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What is meaningful public participation? |
Participatory processes that incorporate all of the essential components of participation, from information sharing to education, including the active and critical exchange of ideas among proponents, regulators and participants
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What are the principles of meaningful public participation? |
Basic principles (should apply to all EA stages):
- adapted to the context - informative and proactive - adaptive and communicative - inclusive and equitable - educative, cooperative - imputable Operating principles (how the basic principles should be applied in the EA process - Context-oriented - Open + transparent - Well planned and focused on negotiable issues - Supportive to participants - Initiated early and sustained - Tiered and optimized |
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The Publics Matrix (Influence vs. stake in outcome) |
Low influence low stake --> spectators low influence high stake --> victim high influence low stake --> media special interest groups high influence high stake --> aboriginal groups, quasi-government bodies |
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What are the benefits of Public participation? |
PECH FMP - Provides access to a wider range of info - Enhances the legitimacy + accountability of decisions made - Clarifies goals and objectives - Helps define problems and identify socially accepted solutions - Facilitates implementation - Minimizes conflict and avoids costly delays - Promotes social learning |
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What are the levels of participation (the famous ladder of citizen participation by Arnstein)? |
(nonparticipation) Manipulation, Therapy, Informing, (degrees of tokenism) consultation, placation, partnership, (degrees of citizen power) delegated power, citizen control |
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What are the key PP provisions in Canadian EA? |
- Adequate notice (notification of proposal, where to get info, where to submit comments) - Access to info (documents relevant) - Participant Funding (ontario used to have, not anymore, increases effectiveness of participation) --> can be used to collect data, participate in scoping activities, etc. - Public Comment (written, audio, or video-recorded) - Public Hearings (impartial/transparent decision making) |
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What happened in Calder v. British Columbia? |
- Nisga'a elders + Frank Calder sued provincial gov't on grounds that aboriginal title to Nisga'a lands had never been lawfully extinguished - Decision: aboriginal title existed at time of royal proclamation and is neither defined by, nor a construct of, the colonial legal system, no ruling - key outcomes: set legal precedent regarding existence of aboriginal title; initiated field of aboriginal law in canada + abroad |
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What happened in Delgamuukw-Gisdayway 1997? |
- chiefs claimed aboriginal title and self-government to over 58,000km^2 - defined nature + content of aboriginal title, - established test to determine whether aboriginal title had been extinguished - outlined process to determine whether or not infringement is justified - marked first instance that aboriginal oral histories were admissible as evidence - enforceable legal principles from the decision: title is exlusive interest in the land itself, including resources, includes the right of a first nation to choose how land can be used, has an inescapable economic component, such that fair compensation will ordinarily be required when title is infringed |
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What happened in Campbell 2000? |
- court considered whether elements of Nisga'a treaty regarding self-government violated - self government is now a constitutionally protected right |
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What happened in Mikisew Cree 2005? |
- take up lands to build winter road near mikisew cree reserve --> hunting grounds + trapping lines would be disrupted, impacting livelihoods - decision: duty to consult + accomodate is triggered when they contemplate stuff that may impact treaty rights |
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Tsilhqot'in 2014 |
- commercial logging license on territory - decision: title is proven in Canadian courts for the first time |
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What are impact and benefit agreements? |
IBA: A form of "supra-regulatory agreement" b/w private corps and communities to: - formalize relationships b/w parties - reduce predicted impacts of a development - secure economic and other benefits for affected communities |
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What issues can IBA's further address? |
- inadequate follow-up in EA processes - marginalization of aboriginals from environmental management on ancestral lands - broader issues of social justice + aboriginal self-determination and self-governance |
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What are the enduring challenges of PP in EA? |
1. Information + communication deficiencies - inadequate notice and inaccessible documents (not enough info, overly technical language, few locations, no digital copies) 2. Insufficient resources for participants - lack of capacity and financial resources to attend meetings, analyze EA findings, prepare alt. reports, hire consultants, conduct surveys + research 3. Accelerated decision processes - insufficient time for public review 4. Weak public participation in follow-ups - dont have to give notice and public comment of results on monitoring + follow-up - most provinces: no public participation |
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What are the main components of EA follow-up? |
1. Monitoring - data collection, repetitive observation to detect if change occurred, causes, magnitude - frequent/continual process -e.g. mercury concentrations in drinking water (monthly measurements) 2. Auditing - compare monitoring observations based on set of criteria - periodic/single event - e.g. maximum concentration of 0.001 mg/L 3. Ex-post evaluation - analysis of follow-up information generated to make decision on remedial actions and communication of results - value judgments and adjustments - e.g. remedial actions needed? fish consumption advisory, treatment tech |
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What are the objectives of EA follow-up? |
1. Control of projects + environmental impacts - provides verifying + controlling functions - compliance audits --> verifies if projects being operated in accordance - prediction audits --> compares predicted with actuals 2. Promote adaptive management approach - uncertainties and imprecision of predictions - feedback from follow-up --> opp to respond when changes warrant adaptation 3. Improve scientific technical knowledge - follow-up + learning function - prediction accuracy audits --> improve methods + impact predictions - monitoring programs --> improve understanding of cause-effect relationships 4. Improve public awareness + acceptance - increased transparency --> gain trust, credibility + political support + legitimize decision-making process |
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Who is or should be involved in EA follow-up? |
Three main groups: 1. proponent --> private companies or gov't - first party follow-up --> initiated + carried out by proponents 2. EA regulator --> gov't agency - to ensure proponents comply with conditions - second party follow-up --> carried out by regulators 3. Community --> involves the publics - third party follow-up --> carried out/initiated by community |
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What are the main benefits and challenges for EA follow-up? |
Benefits: - for regulator: controlling compliance, reducing uncertainty, better predictions/decisions, improve process - for proponent: better project management, protection from liability, green profile - for community: communication about concerns, enhancement of local knowledge, nuisance, safety, health issues Challenges: - deficiencies in EA reports (vague/qualitative predictive statements, absence in rigour) - lack of guidance - legislative deficiencies (few jurisdictions with formal legislative requirement for follow-up) - lack of financial + human resources |
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What does "follow-up program" mean? |
A program for: - verifying accuracy of EA - determining effectiveness of any mitigation measures |
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What are the differences of compliance monitoring vs. follow-up program? |
Compliance - were mitigation measures implemented? follow-up program - determines accuracy of conclusions of EA and effectiveness - compliance on its own does not satisfy requirements of follow-up |
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What are cumulative effects? |
change in environment caused by multiple interactions among human activities and natural processes that accumulate across space and time |
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What are the sources of change that contribute to cumulative effects? |
Time crowding: repeated frequently --> ecosystem has no time to assimilate effects (e.g. forest harvesting rates exceed regeneration) Space crowding: so close together that effects overlap (e.g. multiple mine sites in one watershed) Time lags: activities generating delayed effects (e.g. human exposure to pesticides) Fragmentation: changes in patterns and cycles (e.g. multiple forest access roads cutting across wildlife habitat) Indirect effects: a result from direct impacts (e.g. decline in recreational fishery caused by decline in fish populations as a result of heavy-metal contamination from industry) Compounding: multiple effects from multiple sources (e.g. heavy metal and chemical contamination resulting from multiple riverside industries) |
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What are the four broad types of cumulative effects? |
LADS 1. Linear additive effects: incremental additions where each increment has the same individual effect 2. amplifying or exponential effects: incremental additions to an apparently limitless resource base where each increment has a large effect 3. Discontinuous effects: incremental additions that have no apparent effect until a certain threshold is reached 4. Structural surprises: changes that occur as a result of multiple developments in a region |
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How are CEAs different from EAs? |
- Assess effects over a larger area - assess effects during a longer period of time - consider effects on VECs due to interactions with other actions - include other past existing and future actions - evaluate significance in consideration of other than just local, direct effects |
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What are the six problem areas of CEA in Canada? |
1. application of CEA in project-level EIAs 2. an EIA focus on project approval instead of environmental sustainability 3. general lack of understanding of ecological impact thresholds 4. separation of cumulative effects from project-specific impacts 5. weak interpretations of cumulative effects by practitioners and analysts 6. inappropriate handling of potential future developments |
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What are the challenges in CEA? |
There is a need to: 1. increase scientific understanding of complex ecosystems 2. modify institutional policies that do not take into account holistic needs for specific VECs 3. Reduce uncertainties related to project effects, and determine the effectiveness of mitigation measures + management programs 4. achieve effective collaboration among range of stakeholders regarding mitigation + management 5. develop appropriate and effective cumulative effects management efforts, and meet necessary budgetary and time requirements |
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What is Strategic Environmental Assessment? |
SEA: a systematic on-going process for evaluating, at the earliest appropriate stage of publicly accountable decision making, the environmental quality, and consequences of alternative visions and development intentions incorporated in policy, planning, program initiatives, ensuring full integration of relevant biophysical, economic, social, and political considerations |
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What are the key objectives of SEA? |
- facilitate integration of broadly environmental considerations (biophysical, economic, social, political) into planning + decision making at strategic level - ensure attention to alternative visions and development intentions - provide better guidance of subsequent activities |
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Specifically, why is SEA a corrective mechanism? |
SEA is a response to limitations of project environmental assessment - reactionary: examining already selected and often already designed undertakings - rushed: pushed by project approval demands to neglect longer term info needs and implications - narrow: failing to address cumulative impacts - poorly integrated: into broader planning, political, and economic processes |
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Generally, why is SEA a corrective mechanism? |
- response to much larger failings that threaten ecological integrity and deepen socio-economic inequities - reflects a conviction that better policy-making + planning is a prerequisite for a shift towards sustainability |
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What is the SEA performance criteria? |
- integrated - sustainability-led - focused - accountable - participative - iterative |
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What are the challenges for SEA? |
- how to decide what strategic level undertakings need assessment - how to set boundaries - limited info + unavoidable uncertainties - primitive methodologies - difficulties defining proper role of public participants and ensure effective involvement - tensions b/w need for clear obligations + flexibility - institutional resistance - conflict b/w integrated assessment + bureaucratic fragmentation - limitations of standard rational planning + policy making model - resistance to integration of strategic assessment in core decision making |
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What is sustainable development? |
meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs |
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What are the criteria for sustainability assessment? |
1. socio-ecological system integrity - build human-ecological relations to establish + maintain long-terem integrity of socio-biophysical systems + protect irreplaceable life support functions 2. livelihood sufficiency and opp - ensuree everyone has enough for decent life + opportunities to seek improvements in ways that do not compromise future 3. intragenerational equity - ensure that sufficiency + effective hcoices for all are pursued in ways that reduce dangerous gaps in sufficiency + opp b/w rich and poor 4. Intergenerational equity - favour present options/actions that are most likely to preserve/enhance future to live sustainably 5. resource maintenance + efficiency - provide larger base for ensuring sustainable livelihoods for all, reducing threats to long-term integrity of socio-ecological systems 5. socio-ecological civility + democratic governance - build capacity, motivation and habitual inclination of individuals, communities, others to apply sustainability through more open + better informed deliberations, greater attention to fostering 6. precaution + adaptation - respect uncertainty, avoid even poorly understood risks of sereious or irreversible damage to the foundation for sustainability, plan to learn, design for surprise, and manage for adaptation 7. immediate + long term integration - apply all principles of sustainability at once, seeking mutually supportive benefits and multiple gains |
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What are the trade-off rules of SA? |
- max net gains - burden of argument on trade-off proponent - avoidance of significant adverse effects - protect future - explicit justification - open process 1. no significant compromises unless approved by all relevant stakeholders 2. only undertakings likely to provide neutral/positive overall effects for each requirement can be acceptable 3. no significant adverse effects in any core category |
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What are the factors of resilience? |
1. diversity (in all forms) 2. ecological variability + complexity: embrace + work with ecological variability 3. modularity: consists of modular components 4. acknowledging "slow" variables: policy focus on slow controlling variables associated with thresholds 5. tight feedbacks (not too tight) 6. social capital (trust, well-developed social networks, leadership) 7. innovation: embracing change 8. overlap in governance: institutions that include redundancy in governance structures 9. Social capital: include all unpriced ecosystem services in development proposals and assessments |
