Chen Mei, Qian Xin, Zhang Longjiang
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing, 210023, People's Republic of China,
Environ Manage. 2015 Mar;55(3):523-35. doi: 10.1007/s00267-014-0428-2. Epub 2014 Dec 24.
Public participation in environmental management is critically important in the development of a healthy environmental governance system. However, public participation has not been well institutionalized in China and the public's role in environmental management is limited. Chinese policy-makers and researchers currently face a dilemma wherein they must determine how to fully and effectively involve the public. This paper aims to contribute an innovative approach that can effectively engage the general public, allowing them to participate more in China's environmental management. In this paper, we first review the current status of environmental management and public participation in China. Based on China's political and socio-cultural-legal dynamics, an Environmental Community Consultative Group (ECCG) was developed to be an innovative means to engage community members. A pilot study of the ECCG was carried out in Yapu village of Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province. The evaluation of the process and outcome of the ECCG showed that the group's effectiveness and influence were significant; the ECCG model was a powerful means by which to promote public environmental awareness, improve public environmental behavior and facilitate public engagement in environmental management. But the ECCG is a small local group that may not function well regarding more complex issues covering a much larger area and has limited impact on environmental policy making. The ECCG experience offers the prospect of grassroots involvement in environmental protection for China's rural areas, while also laying the foundation for further research on community participation in environmental management.
公众参与环境管理对于构建健康的环境治理体系至关重要。然而，在中国，公众参与尚未得到很好的制度化，公众在环境管理中的作用有限。中国的政策制定者和研究人员目前面临着一个两难境地，即必须确定如何充分有效地让公众参与进来。本文旨在提供一种创新方法，能够有效吸引普通公众，使他们更多地参与到中国的环境管理中。在本文中，我们首先回顾了中国环境管理和公众参与的现状。基于中国的政治、社会文化和法律动态，组建了一个环境社区协商小组（ECCG），作为吸引社区成员参与的一种创新方式。在江苏省常州市雅浦村开展了ECCG的试点研究。对ECCG过程和结果的评估表明，该小组的有效性和影响力显著；ECCG模式是提高公众环境意识、改善公众环境行为以及促进公众参与环境管理的有力手段。但ECCG是一个小型的地方团体，对于覆盖范围更广、更复杂的问题可能无法很好地发挥作用，对环境政策制定的影响也有限。ECCG的经验为中国农村地区基层参与环境保护带来了希望，同时也为进一步研究社区参与环境管理奠定了基础。
