Environmental Governance

AUA Acopian Center has been actively promoting the participation of citizens and stakeholders in environmental governance as a means to enhance environmental policy outcomes, build a more engaged citizenry and increase the legitimacy of decisions.

Frequently, the initiation of new or operationalization of existing infrastructure or other projects benefits at the national, regional, or global scales. However, local communities can experience negative impacts due to the requirements for extensive land areas and/or water use, etc. Public participation in environmental planning enables affected communities to provide feedback on the environmental, social, and economic challenges of projects.

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment aims at embedding participatory and collaborative environmental governance approaches and methods in many of its projects with the aim to understand how different stakeholders, such as the industry sector, consultants, governmental authorities, and representatives of local communities, perceive the planning and implementation of new or existing initiatives and how their perceptions differ.

Furthermore, the Center offers approaches that contribute to improving the quality of decision-making by providing decision-makers with additional, unique information on local conditions, thus helping to co-develop sustainable solutions and addressing the distrust issues.