Participatory Rural Appraisal Approaches for Public Participation in EIA: Lessons from South Africa

Abstract

: Public participation in environmental impact assessment (EIA) often falls short of the requirements of best practice in the move towards sustainable development, particularly for disadvantaged and marginalized communities. This paper explores the value of a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approach for improved public participation in a sample of EIA’s for photovoltaic projects in South Africa. PRA was conducted post facto making use of selected PRA tools. Findings show that a great deal more information was obtained by the PRA approach, confirming the perceived weakness of traditional PP for vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. It is concluded that a PRA approach has considerable potential for improving meaningful public participation, which should improve EIA, build capacity in those communities, and enhance livelihoods and sustainable resource use.

Health impacts of industrial mining on surrounding communities: Local perspectives from three sub-Saharan African countries

“…Placing local communities at centre and proactive inclusion of marginalised population during impact assessment may improve impact assessment by contributing context specific knowledge, which is needed for identifying and addressing communities’ needs appropriately [ 55 , 56 ]. Although public participation has been reported as a major challenge in impact assessment and weak methodological guidance [ 56 , 57 ], community-based impact assessment approaches have been developed and successfully administered, including examples from sub-Saharan Africa [ 58 – 61 ].…”

“It Is Like We Are Living in a Different World”: Health Inequity in Communities Surrounding Industrial Mining Sites in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Tanzania

“…Another key strategy for integrating equity measures in impact assessment is community empowerment [ 53 , 74 ]. Therefore, researchers have suggested the increased use of participatory assessments in comparative settings and to ensure the inclusion of communities in solution-finding and decision-making processes [ 75 , 76 , 77 ].…”

Making sense of how proponents conspire to thwart environmental impact assessment processes: insights from the Miramar Resort controversy in Taiwan

“…Consideration of how to embed traditional, local and indigenous knowledge into environmental assessment processes is still emerging globally (see e.g. Eckert et al (2020) on the limitations of Canadian environmental assessment legislation to engage indigenous knowledge; and Sandham, Chabalala, and Spaling (2019) on linking participatory rural appraisal on EIAs in South Africa). The Miramar findings hence illustrate that even if opportunities for participation in the EIA process are provided, these may be of limited value if they are not supported by measures to ensure contributors' testimonies and knowledge are treated with credibility.…”