Mariachiara Alberton Bücher

Public participation in the environmental decision-making process is a critical component of the legal mechanism for environmental protection. This book offers an overview of international principles, legal instruments and mechanisms promoting public participation with a specific focus on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure. It analyses the EU and Chinese legal frameworks and practices, by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses. This book focuses on the practical issues and lessons learned and sets out practices in public participation exercises at the national (for the EU, Italy and Sweden) and the local level (for China, Shandong and Yunnan) to complement the broader legal framework.

The year 2010 marked the deadline for significantly reduce biodiversity loss. Notwithstanding the efforts to date, a general failure has been acknowledged both at international and local levels and a set of new targets has been incorporated in respective agendas. Successfully meeting these new goals calls for a critical review of existing policy and legislative measures, gaps and lessons learned. Accordingly, the book aims at investigating the legal and policy instruments which directly or indirectly affect biodiversity protection and ecological connectivity at the international, EU, regional (Alpine and Carpathian Conventions), national and subnational levels. At national and subnational levels, some of the Carpathian countries, i. e. Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Serbia and Ukraine, have been selected for in depth analysis. Cross-border cooperation between these States is examined as an instrument for promoting biodiversity within and outside national borders.