Environmental Impact Assessment and Consensus Building

Abstract
In Japan, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been disassociated with consensus building in project planning. This situation has changed with the establishment of the EIA Act of 1997 which requires the results of an EIA report to be reflected in the decision making process of any project plan. Since public opinion is now reflected in the EIA report, it also influences the project plan itself. However, even though consensus building has become part of the EIA process, it is still hard to actually reach a consensus. Consensus building itself cannot be done through the EIA process alone, but must be attained through consecutive discussions between all the stakeholders. This should be done apart from the EIA process. Here all the various stakeholders must participate in free discussion and argument in a process that is fully transparent. Now that Japan has made progress in areas of EIA and free access to information, this type of environment has also emerged in this country as well. For example, there is the recent example of a case where citizens were able to participate in the planning committee for a waste treatment facility in Nagano Prefecture. This paper introduces the consensus building process using this particular example.

Key words: environmental impact assessment, consensus building, citizen participation, waste management dispute, stakeholders