Events: Public Participation in Environmental Matters in East Asia: Access to Information, Administrative Procedures and Justice organized by UNU-IAS on 19 Mar 2013

Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 13:00 - 17:30 at UNU-IAS

Public Symposium
Public Participation in Environmental Matters in East Asia:
Access to Information, Administrative Procedures and Justice

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Event description

Event language: English

The concept of “public participation in environmental matters” has become increasingly institutionalized around the world in the past two decades and was re-confirmed at Rio+20. Its three pillars, access to information, administrative procedures and justice for individuals and environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), are implemented quite progressively in environmental policies beyond national states. The Sustainable Development Governance Initiativeof UNU-IAS is currently working on a major publication addressing this issue in a multifaceted manner in different geographic regions. This symposium will provide an overview and thematic case studies on the current state of public participation in environmental matters with a focus on East Asia and in particular on Japan.

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Programme

12:30	Registration
13:00	Opening Session Welcome remarks Jose Puppim de Oliveira (Assistant Director of UNU-IAS)
13:10	Presentation 1 “Public participation in Environmental Matters: Compendium, Challenges and Chances” Volker Mauerhofer (Senior Research Fellow, UNU-IAS) Discussion: 10 min. Presentation 2 “Public Participation and the United Nations Decade of Biodiversity – the Example of Japan”Makiko Imai (IUCN Japan Committee/Member of Commission on Education and Communication of IUCN) Discussion: 10 min.
14:10	Break
14:30	Presentation 3 “Public Participation in Environmental Matters: A Government’s Perspectives on Public Engagement with Biodiversity”Naohisa Okuda (Director, Global Biodiversity Strategy Office, Nature Conservation Bueau, Ministy of the Environment, Japan) Discussion: 10 min. Presentation 4 “Public Participation on the example of land-sea reclamation projects: Case studies from Japan, China and the Philippines”Jue Yang (Researcher, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University) Volker Mauerhofer (Senior Research Fellow, UNU-IAS) Discussion: 10 min. Presentation 5 “Public Participation in the Japanese Traffic Planning System”Kumiko Taniuchi (Appointed Researcher, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University) Discussion: 10 min.
16:00	Break
16:20	Presentation 6 “Public Participation from a NGO’s perspective: The Case of the Nagara River Wire Gate"Miori Aoyama (Special Committee of Aichi Prefecture to restore estuary of Nagara River) Discussion: 10 min. Presentation 7 “Environmental Information and Its Distribution: Experiences from the WorldBank” Tomoyuki Naito (Manager, Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC), The World Bank) Discussion: 10 min.
17:20	Concluding SessionConcluding remarks Volker Mauerhofer (UNU-IAS)

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Registration is free and open to the public. For further information, please contact UNU-IAS at unuias[at]ias.unu.edu or 045-221-2300.

For registration and more information: http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=8&ddlID=2484