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

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Date of publication: 
octobre 2019
Resource Language: 
ISBN / Resource ID: 
10.3390/land8100150
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Copyright details: 
© 2019 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article.

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.

Auteurs et éditeurs

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Sandham, A. Luke
Chabalala, J. Jason
Spaling, H. Harry

Publisher(s): 

Fournisseur de données

Concentration géographique

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