Public deliberation for sustainability governance: GMO debates in Hokkaido

Building a sustainable society requires public deliberation and participatory decision-making on environmental problems by citizens. Because top-down decision-making can lead to environmental discrimination, a democratic decision-making process is also indispensable in order to achieve environmental justice. Environmental discrimination is caused by the immaturity of democratic governance systems as well as by social discrimination. Debate on environmental problems inevitably involves conflicts over differing values, but solutions to such problems often require some kind of local knowledge. Citizens have the right to participate in decision-making concerning environmental policies and, as laypeople, may also be able to contribute to the solution of local environmental problems through their local knowledge.

Related Subject(s): Environment and Climate Change