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In planning regional road development, planners often face a challenge to reconcile various interests and interpretations on the ultimate goals which complicate the discussion decision-making processes. This situation is defined as strategic ambiguity. Standard procedures for impact assessment are mostly ineffective at offering solutions that satisfy all involved stakeholders. This paper analyses the situation by using a Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) approach. MSF identifies three factors, labelled "streams', i.e. the problems, the solutions, and the politics streams, that open sustainability 'windows' for integrating different interests. This paper investigates the opening of such windows in two highway projects in Indonesia. Both projects showed a high ambition for achieving environmental sustainability. In these cases, the window was opened through (i) recognition of the problems and the solutions by the active involvement of stakeholders, (ii) coalitions with influential stakeholders for political supports, and (iii) mobilization of resources and policy networks by the stakeholders. It is concluded that planners might influence the streams to outline decision-making processes and to implement environmental impact assessments effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of sustainability as a concept in business forces companies to navigate a complex arena of standards and codes. The active and controversial debate regarding 'what the Equator Principles mean' for global finance and the projects it funds will undoubtedly continue. In the meantime, they represent an important shift in social and environmental impact assessment (SEIA) by serving as guidance for process-driven project development. This represents a substantial change from SEIA in which the ultimate and end goal was to obtain a permit. The integrated approach of the new Equator Principles, especially requirements for transparency, consultation and feedback mechanisms, provide borrowers with the management guidance needed to convince financers of their due diligence in impact assessment and beyond. This paper looks at the application of the Equator Principles, and the IFC Performance Standards that underpin them, as tools that can be deployed at any level of project development, including existing facilities that may have never completed an SEIA. It assesses elements of monitoring and the 'art' of reporting to show how impact assessment practitioners can use the Equator Principles to create concrete indicators that will help to integrate impact assessment results to meet the challenges of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]