A framework to implement Stakeholder participation in environmental projects

Participation has emerged as an appropriate approach for enhancing natural resources management. However, despite long experimentation with participation, there are still possibilities for improvement in designing a process of stakeholder involvement by addressing stakeholder heterogeneity and the complexity of decision-making processes.This paper provides a state-of-the-art overview of methods. It proposes a comprehensive framework to implement stakeholder participation in environmental projects, from stakeholder identification to evaluation. For each process within this framework, techniques are reviewed and practical tools proposed. The aim of this paper is to establish methods to determine who should participate, when and how. The application of this framework to one river restoration case study in Switzerland will illustrate its strengths and weaknesses.

► A framework for public participation in environmental projects is presented. ► Methods to identify, characterize and structure stakeholders are proposed. ► The best possible degree of involvement is attributed to each stakeholder. ► Our framework is applied to a Swiss river restoration projet. ► The analysis of the case study shows positive impacts on the project quality.