Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment of Hydropower Plants in Nepal: A Contextspecific Approach

This paper investigates the public participation (PP) process in environmental impact assessments (EIA) of three large-scale hydropower plants (HPs) in Nepal, with a view to improving the PP process to accommodate the interests and needs of local citizens impacted. The degree of utilization of PP in EIA is determined by the willingness of proponents (an individual conceptualization of the owner of the HP construction) to share decision making with citizens. It is the theoretical standpoint of this paper that improvements to the PP process can be implemented only within a given context, wherein the proponent allows sharing of decision making with citizens.