The Feasibility Of The Public Participation In Environmental Protection In Typical Rural

Public participation in environmental protection is originated in developed countries, like the Europe and the United States. The concept of environmental protection has already been infiltrated all walks of life after nearly half a century, and evolved into the public consciousness and their personal behavior. A number of volunteers assist the government's various environmental initiatives in many places, and play an important role, such as propagating environmental knowledge, enhancing public environmental awareness and participation and influencing the government's environmental decision-making process.The study of public participation in environmental protection in China started in the 1980s, and research work mostly focus on theories by the government and academic, lack of practice studies by individuals. And due to the significant difference among the environment status, the economic level and the public awareness in environmental protection all over the country, the difficulties facing are not the same in the popularization and implementation of public participation, especially in rural areas. In our country, all conditions are obviously weak. Therefore, in order to popularize public participation and provide practical helps, it is necessary to collect local data and conduct feasible analysis, ahead of the implementation of mechanisms for public participation in environmental protection.The pilot study is selected in the Eryuan of Yunnan Province. Due to the place near Erhai lake, the research aims at public participation in water environment protection. It is using PERTS model to test the feasibility of local water environment of public participation mechanisms by analyzing environmental awareness and environmental behavior. National Survey Results in 1999 and 2007 are selected as the optimistic simulation, pre-survey results as the worst simulation, and then calculated the mean. Base on the weight of the three times questionnaires, the current trends about public environmental awareness and behavior in rural areas of China are predicted. 105 questionnaires in the demonstration area show that:1. The theoretical condition of the public participation mechanisms for water environment protection in Eryuan is not proficient. The result of survey is lower than the predicted in Environmental awareness and behavior. It is mostly due to the education,economic and legal factors. Nevertheless, some analysis results are positive and worthy of attention, such as taking seriously to water, believing the water future evolution in hometown…and so on results in Eryuan are higher than predicted. It shows that the public are care about the water resource in hometown, and the popularization of environmental science of the government in Eryuan is doing well.2. The practice foundation of the public participation mechanisms for water environment protection in Eryuan is to be improved, mainly reflected three main reasons: the administrative, legal and economic. The local government should strengthen, mobilize public enthusiasm, put the public environment behaviors into daily life, lead the local people participating in environmental protection. And the same time, perfect legislation, enforce the law solemnly, carry out ecological compensation and economic incentives appropriately etc. According to these, it will promote public participation in local water environment and eventually create conditions for establishing an appropriate public participation in environmental protection model.