CONTENTS

PUPLIC PARTICIPATION
Page 1

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES
Page 2

WHAT IS PUBLIC PARTICIPATION?
Page 6

DIFFERENT WAYS
TO INVOLVE THE PUBLIC
Page 7

ROUND TABLES IN CANADA
Page 9

USING ROUND TABLES IN THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR IN POLAND
Page 10

URBAN GREENING. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN BANGKOK
Page 13

ENLISTING THE PUBLIC TO CLEAN UP CITIES
Page 15

EMPOWERMENT AND PUPLIC PARTICIPATION
Page17

ICSC'S ROLE AS A BROKER
Page 20

ICSC'S CANADIAN TEAM-
PUPLIC PARTICIPATION AND MULTI-PARTY PROCESSES
Page 21

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES

Robert Paddon
In 1988, the year after Our Common Future was published, the Canadian government, through its Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office, published one of the first definitive reviews of public participation. Rene Parenteau, a professor at the University of Montreal's Urban Institute, completed a six-year research study on public participation and environmental decision-making in Canada. His study tracked an emerging global trend; the institutionalization of consultation and participation that set out procedures for the public to influence decisions that would affect them or the environment. By the 1990s, public participation had become an established part of public-policy development in Canada, the United States and most Western European nations.

Where Did Public Participation Come From?
While it can be argued that public participation's roots can be tracked back to the direct democracy of ancient Athens, its more contemporary application is in the late 20th century. Author and practitioner, James Creighton,¹ in his survey of American trends in the field, argued that contemporary public involvement dates back to the 1960s and the War on Poverty, when its "efforts to engage communities in housing, welfare, and education programs went so far as to give funds directly to community boards elected by the people they served." According to Creighton, this movement did not go beyond the 1960s, and the public participation field as it is known today is the offspring of the 1970s environmental movement: "A series of environmental laws created a legal mandate for participation, but just exactly what that meant was defined by trial and error."

Environmental legislation spurred growth of public participation in the United States and Canada. Federal environmental policies instituted in the 1970s entrenched public participation in decision making in agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

¹James Creighton, "Trends in the Field of Public Participation in the United States," Interact, The Journal of Public Participation, Fall 1995.