Environmental federalism in EIA policy: A comparative case study of Paraná, Brazil and California, US

Loomis, John J.; Oliveira, Cíntia Mara Ribas de; Dziedzic, Maurício

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2021.03.015

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Despite provisions for citizen input, lack of transparency and neglect of participation in practice are the main challenges for democratic environmental governance in Chile (Rodríguez-Luna et al 2021), as well as in Brazil (Zhouri 2008). Consequently, project opponents have increasingly used lawsuits, especially against EIAs (Loomis et al 2021), to halt dam projects. The provisions open to citizens for legal action differ considerably in Chile and Brazil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enforcing Citizen Participation Through Litigation: Analyzing the Outcomes of Anti-Dam Movements in Brazil and Chile

Heinelt¹,

Lima²

2023

Lat Am Polit Soc

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In environmental politics, social movements play a crucial role, promoting participatory rights and confronting injustice, inequality, and the interests of the powerful. This article examines an underexplored topic in the literature on social movements, especially in Latin America: the use of litigation to force decisionmakers to comply with participatory formats, specifically in the course of opposition to hydroelectric dams. These projects often are destructive to the local environment and communities. This study examines four cases of environmental litigation that halted dam construction in Brazil and Chile, singling out causal pathways for successful collective action. It focuses on two dimensions of movement success: the implementation of participatory formats and the resulting cancellation of dam projects. In line with the joint effect model of social movement theory, the cross-case comparison of legal disputes shows that pursuing legal strategies in parallel to broad social mobilization and the support of institutional allies, can lead to successful outcomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enforcing Citizen Participation Through Litigation: Analyzing the Outcomes of Anti-Dam Movements in Brazil and Chile

Heinelt¹,

Lima²

2023

Lat Am Polit Soc

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“…A detailed comparison of the EIA systems of Paraná, Brazil, California, and the US can be found in (Loomis, de Oliveira, and Dziedzic 2021) where a comparative case study is reported, analyzing the systems' operationalization, legislation, administration, and procedures. The present study evaluated the case studies along five dimensions of effectiveness: procedural, substantive, transactive, normative, and transformative (Loomis, Bond, and Dziedzic 2022;Loomis and Dziedzic 2018;Sadler 1996).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Eia in Paraná, Brazil and California, United States With Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Loomis¹,

Dziedzic²

2022

Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process

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Since its introduction in the US, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has become one of the most widespread environmental policy instruments, which has evolved from solely conservation aims to serve as a tool for sustainable development. Despite its history and dissemination, EIA is routinely criticized for being ineffective at impacting decision-making or promoting more sustainable development. This study performed a comparative case study using the effectiveness dimensions from the EIA evaluative literature and two methodologies. Two states in federalist systems were chosen, Paraná, Brazil and California, United States. This comparative case study formats the cases into contextual conditions using the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) methodology in order to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions that foster effective outcomes. These effectiveness outcomes and criteria are then ranked by EIA stakeholders via the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in order to identify stakeholder priorities and to improve stakeholder management. The results show that in Paraná stakeholders identified normative effectiveness as the most important dimension for an ideal effective EIA outcome, and stakeholders in California identified this dimension as the second-most important following substantive effectiveness. For normative effectiveness outcome early project definition and public participation were found to be necessary conditions and stakeholder coordination was found to be a sufficient condition. Following normative effectiveness, Paraná stakeholders identified procedural effectiveness as the second most important. While transactive effectiveness was ranked lowest overall in both case studies, improving procedural effectiveness has been shown to be connected to the transactive effectiveness. Finally, transformative effectiveness ranked third and fourth in California and Paraná respectively, which also had the lowest set membership in fsQCA. This study advances EIA evaluatory literature by assessing various effectiveness dimensions through two complementary methodologies.

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“…The two cases that were chosen are, Paraná, Brazil and California, United States (US). These cases present similarities that make for interesting comparison, both cases represent mature EIA systems (Paraná established its EIA system in 1989 and California in 1970) and both operate within federalists systems (Loomis et al, 2021). Yet, they also exhibit differences, Paraná is an EIA system in an upper middle income developing country and California in a developed country, thus, comparing these two systems can be of interest for a wide range researchers and practitioners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment in Paraná, Brazil and California, United States with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and the analytical hierarchy process

Loomis,

Dziedzic

2024

Environmental Management

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Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has become one of the most widespread environmental management instruments. Despite this, EIA is routinely criticized for being ineffective at impacting decision-making. This study compared the EIA systems of Paraná, Brazil and California, United States using the effectiveness dimensions from the EIA literature. This study formats the cases into contextual conditions using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the necessary and su cient conditions that cause effective outcomes. These effectiveness outcomes are then ranked by EIA stakeholders via the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to identify stakeholder priorities and to improve stakeholder management. The results show that in Paraná stakeholders identi ed normative effectiveness as the most important dimension, while stakeholders in California identi ed this dimension as the secondmost important following substantive effectiveness. Public participation was found to be a necessary condition for both substantive and normative effectiveness to occur. Early project de nition was found to be su cient for substantive effectiveness and necessary for normative effectiveness, for which stakeholder coordination was a su cient condition. This suggests that in order for EIA to in uence decision-making and foster sustainable development, greater care needs to be taken to actively engage stakeholders in public participation, with clear roles and project design communicated early on, and a clear role for regulatory authority to promote stakeholder coordination for acceptable outcomes. These ndings suggest that some effectiveness dimensions are caused by similar conditions, which could help focus stakeholder management efforts and point to new avenues for future EIA effectiveness research.

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Environmental federalism in EIA policy: A comparative case study of Paraná, Brazil and California, US

Cited by 13 publications

References 30 publications

Enforcing Citizen Participation Through Litigation: Analyzing the Outcomes of Anti-Dam Movements in Brazil and Chile

Enforcing Citizen Participation Through Litigation: Analyzing the Outcomes of Anti-Dam Movements in Brazil and Chile

Analyzing Eia in Paraná, Brazil and California, United States With Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Analyzing the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment in Paraná, Brazil and California, United States with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and the analytical hierarchy process

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