SOCIOLOGY

UNIT- IV BA LLB

4.3 COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND ENVIRONMENT

MANAGEMENT
• Community Participation is a process that involves people participating in the planning,
implementing, and managing their local environment. It is actually a readiness on the
part of both local governments and the community to accept equal responsibilities and
activities in managing their surroundings. It also means a commitment to bring to the
table resources, skills and knowledge for this purpose, and a respect for the capabilities
and capacities of all partners.
• Participation of the community in environmental management requires a local
understanding of resources, problems and suitable mechanisms to find the management
of the problems.
• Environmental management involves the management of all components of the bio-
physical environment, both living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic). This is due to
the interconnectedness and network of relationships among all living species and their
habitats. It also involves the relationships of various human facets, such as the social,
cultural and economic environment with the bio-physical environment.

HOW PARTICIPATION HELPS

Of particular significance has been the participation and role of the 'community' the primary
stakeholder in these processes has become an important component of all environmental
programmes and projects, both in terms of decision-making processes, and of creating an
enabling environment for the community to have a say over aspects that affect their lives. In
general, in all development programmes of government local level participation has occupied
an important position in project implementation. Otherwise, also participation or decentralized
governance is one of the cornerstones of Indian democracy and has equal benefits for
policymakers, public servants and civil society. To highlight few:

• Participation helps the government to make more appropriate decisions based on the
local needs of people
• The more informed people are, or the more participation, the better they understand
about government’s strategy, budget and resource limitations.
• The local needs are varying in various communities and thus creating a partnership
between the community and government helps in addressing the development needs
and service delivery.
THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

(1) To understand the perception of community: Any activity directly involving the
community requires one to understand the issues and perspectives from community
perception. This helps in identifying the choices and preferences regarding the lifestyle
at the local level which are made at the community, household and individual levels.
In other words we also refer this as local needs of community which could have short-term
and long-term impacts i.e. it gives a detail picture of utilization of local resources, its
consumption and steps required for intervention of proper management. By understanding
the quality of life and lifestyle issues in environmental management ensures that problems
are tackled at its source, and long term benefits accrued .This also helps in ensuring
the visualization and planning for smooth environmental managements both at locally
as well as globally. .
(2) Involvement in decision making: It is important to maintain subsidiarity of decision-
making, since local, daily decisions need to be taken at the local and community levels,
Community participation involves creation of forums where issues are discussed and
implemented. These help in maintaining the scale of decisions and commitment is ensured
and built at appropriate level. Local forums are the outcome of effective community
participation where issues are discussed and suitably planned as well as implemented. The
localized decisions making process is a reflection of community dynamics on awareness
building, which need to be built into the core of an environmental management plan.
(3) Commitment from localites: Community participation is also one of the right way to
have the clear commitment and complete involvement of local members in order to reach
the desired goals and success in joint activities of environmental management
programme. By bringing the community at a common platform in relation to
environment is one of the launching steps in continuous process of awareness building
and attitudinal change. By bridging the community to a platform it provides a rallying
point that can build commitment and involvement from the community. Linking
environmental problems, both local and global, to everyday lifestyles is critical in
motivating communities and planning for action.
(4) Optimum utilization of Resources: Community participation pools resources and
diverse skills and working strategies from within the community, creating pride and
ownership of a programme or project. Within the homogeneity of a 'community' lies a broad
diversity of resources that are prerequisites for the implementation of any plan or
programme. Inherently, these have to be taken into account. By pooling resources and
diverse skills enables a complex issue such as managing the local environment. It also
enables creative brainstorming that identifies 'problems-behind-problems' and ensures
'solutions-for-solutions' – maximizing the benefits derived by a small resource base.
 (5) Monitoring & Evaluation: Community participation will ensure that checking and
corrective action through monitoring/evaluation can be done by and for the community
itself. The local community can ensure close vigilance through community involvement
by controlling its own actions, outputs i.e. mechanism of garbage disposal and its
effects in terms of pollution and health hazards. By having the community’s view on
environmental management and its commitment, it would enable and facilitate the overall
environmental management by close monitoring the environmental issues. In conclusion,
involving the community in local environmental management has been prescribed as
a panacea for a whole lot of environmental ills – in some cases, to also avoid
responsibilities and accountabilities of the concerned entities. Real positive impacts can be
ensured through partnerships that respect the stakeholders involved, and the resources that
they bring to the table, and to enable actions that each stakeholder is best suited to perform.
Consensus-driven visions and goals are also important, to coordinate activities and to
monitor and evaluate actions.

Lee and Abbot identify a number of the potential benefits of promoting public participation.
1. Improving the quality of decisions.
The preamble to the Aarhus Convention emphasizes the role that public participation has
to play in improving environmental decisions. It states that improved access and public
participation in decision-making enhance the quality and implementation of decisions. This
can be done through such things as the input of specific expertise held by members of the
public through the elicitation of social and cultural values.
2. Environmental problem-solving.
One of the ways in which competing values can be resolved is through techniques of
deliberation, that is all concerned parties both governmental and community
representatives ought to sit together and take a bottom-up approach in which all sides of an
issue being debated in an attempt to reach a consensus on an issue.
3. Promoting environmental citizenship.
Environmental citizenship is loosely based upon the notion that individuals should take
some responsibility for their own interaction with the environment. In promoting such
citizenship, participation in environmental matters is crucial. Engaging the public to play
an active role in environmental policy-making and raising awareness of environmental
issues are central to promoting environmental citizenship.
4. Improving procedural legitimacy.
Increased involvement in decisions, access to good quality environmental information and
ex-post review mechanisms through such things as judicial review increases the
accountability of the decision maker and makes the process more legitimate in the eyes of
the public.