Stakeholder assessment in environmental policy analysis

Stakeholder assessment is an important approach in environmental policy analysis. It helps to identify the critical environmental issues in controversy in a given situation, the affected interests, and the appropriate forms of handling the conflicts. Although many studies have highlighted the major prevailing environmental theory of coordination and communication, few have linked this theory with practical environmental policy analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework of stakeholder assessment to reach the goal of environmental dispute resolution and assess the major stakeholders' roles in potential environmental conflicts, particularly in resource-dependent local jurisdictions. A case study was conducted to further examine the theoretical model of stakeholder assessment in environmental conflicts and the policy analysis process. The stakeholder assessment process involves potentially interested stakeholders in order to: assess the causes of the conflict; identify the entities and stakeholders who would be substantively affected by the conflict's outcome; assess those stakeholders' interests and identify a preliminary set of relevant issues; evaluate the feasibility of using a consensus-building or other collaborative process to address these issues; educate interested persons on consensus and collaborative processes; and design the structure of a negotiating committee or other collaborative process to address the conflicts. The results highlighted that stakeholder assessment has been proven valuable as a first step in consensus-building processes and in finding constructive approaches to resolving environmental conflicts.