Information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters: Rio+20 appraisal

Since 20 years of the Rio Declaration, we have seen a number of developments in the field of participatory rights where environmental agreements emphasise the need to include communities in the environmental decision making processes. Now and again, lack of community engagement in the economic valuation of ecosystem services along with weak information and consultation procedure that disregard the voice of the affected communities have resulted in unsustainable resource management. Examples from some developed and developing countries show the need for increased participation of non state actors, joint management of shared natural resources and stronger obligations of government agencies to involve communities in resource decisions. Along with an effective global framework dealing with participatory rights, regional collaboration can help to promote sustainable resource governance.