ABSTRACT
Public participation requirements constitute a firm part of environmental laws across the world and represent a crucial precondition for consensus-building in projects with competing priorities, often including economic, social, and environmental matters—core components of the concept of sustainable development. This chapter addresses the broader concept of the expected benefits of public participation from the perspective of consensus-seeking and knowledge generation. It also discusses the topic of meaningful public participation, paying attention to its potential to include vulnerable members of the society in decision-making procedures. Practical examples from the Global South emphasize traits of public participation and the potential of the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Escazú Agreement, which is an important development in the region of Global South. The preparation of public policies and the meaning of responsible scientific advice will be considered. Thus, the chapter addresses the topic of public participation in a manner sensitive to the particular context of respective countries and at the same time highlights aspects of universal applicability to underlie the relevance of public participation in the context of the current globalized world.
