Public participation in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): acceptance of the impact

Abstract

This paper presents the results of exploratory research related to the attributes assigned to environmental impacts, which followed a qualitative assessment methodology. This methodology is widely used in Colombia; however, a variable that represents the participation of the communities in the evaluation of the environmental impact is sought. The Colombian regulations and continuous legal sentences on prior consultation issues in black communities’ and indigenous reserve territories, as well as the collective characteristics of these properties, deserve the inclusion of a variable that measures public participation in the assessment of environmental impacts. Particularly in the Chocó territory, it is necessary to include an additional attribute apart from those required in the qualitative assessment (which can be extended to collective property territories throughout the country or globally) that represents the communities’ will. Therefore, the decision to carry out a project, work or activity is only made after consideration of a greater human approach and without discrediting other environmental factors involved in these areas, which are potentially sensitive to environmental effects. It was determined that the acceptability of projects and environmental impacts are part of the decision-making process made by the environmental authority, but communities are typically not considered. The possibility of obtaining community acceptability as a part of the methodology for assessing environmental impacts, that is, as a variable or additional attribute of an environmental impact assessment, has not been previously considered and makes this work novel.