A METHODOLOGY ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN
LOCAL AGENDA 21
Eduardo SANTOS * and Paula LUCAS **
* Undergraduate environmental engineer student; member of the CIVITAS Center
** Undergraduate environmental engineer student; member of the CIVITAS Center,
pcml@ip.pt
The involvement of ordinary citizens in issues such as local planning towards sustainability is a necessity in a modern, complex society. Chapter 28 of The United Nations Action Plan for Sustainable Development -"Agenda 21"- approved in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio in 1992, is in tune with this approach. Some of the benefits inherent to this approach are the direct contact of the technicians with communities problems and the establishment of partnerships between local actors.
This paper describes a proposed methodology on public participation in Local Agenda 21, which target the change of some aspects in the public participation process in Portugal, addressing issues such as lack of interest of ordinary citizens and participation process reduced to the final stages of planning.
The proposed methodology informs and responds to questions of the whole community, in every stage of the planning process. As in every participation process it is dependent on the number of adherents to the process; by using a large and varied number of actions and by using the latest technologies (such as the internet) improvement is expected in participation, and consequently in the quality of the planning process.
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