Internet as a tool in international participatory processes – critical issues based on practical experiences
Eeva Furman and Mikael Hildén

 Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
P.O.Box 140, 00251 Helsinki, Finland
E-mail: eeva.furman@ymparisto.fi

Abstract 
The number of international initiatives has grown substantially during the last 20 years. Finland, for example, has signed some 70 international environmental agreements. Each agreement includes processes such as the development of pre-documents, planning the actual negotiation and agreement process, supporting the implementation and finally monitoring the implementation. When carried out in traditional form through physical meetings, these processes demand large amounts of re-sources because a) "all" key stakeholders in the society are expected to be included and  b) the stakeholders are coming from many countries or continents. Physical meetings are also seen to be problematic from an eco-efficiency point of view. 
In this paper, we present experiences from three international regional processes of planning and decision making where elements of e-participation have been used.  The processes include 1) the development of the Arctic EIA guidance, 2) the development of guidance for practical implementation of the UN/ECE convention on EIA in a trans-boundary context and 3) the development of a guiding document for suggestions on good practice in public participation in environmental issues in the ASEM countries. We analyse the contribution of e-participation in the process, and raise critical issues and demands related to the participatory aspects of international initiatives that technical developments of e-participation will have to recognize. 
Literature
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