Making sense of how proponents conspire to thwart environmental impact assessment processes: insights from the Miramar Resort controversy in Taiwan.

Huang, Yi-Chen; Mabon, Leslie

doi:10.1080/09640568.2021.1944846

Making sense of how proponents conspire to thwart environmental impact assessment processes: insights from the Miramar Resort controversy in Taiwan.

Huang, Yi-Chen; Mabon, Leslie

Authors

Yi-Chen Huang

Leslie Mabon

Abstract

Despite extensive enquiry into the socio-political aspects of environmental impact assessments (EIA), empirical material from east- and south-east Asia remains underrepresented in English-language scholarship. This is notable given increasing infrastructural developments and interest in environmental justice in the region. We contribute to this field by evaluating the Miramar Resort EIA controversy in Taitung County, Taiwan, to assess how a developer and a local government conspired to circumvent an EIA process. Through documentary analysis and stakeholder interviews, we assess the argumentation used by different actors to articulate their support for or opposition to the development. We find that much contention rests on claims to economic benefit and environmental protection that cannot be verified, and on limited participation opportunities. We call for further research into strategies used by proponents to discredit the knowledge and experience of opponents within EIA processes, especially given rising global interest in traditional, local and indigenous knowledge.

Citation

HUANG, Y.-C. and MABON, L. 2022. Making sense of how proponents conspire to thwart environmental impact assessment processes: insights from the Miramar Resort controversy in Taiwan. Journal of environmental planning and management [online], 65(9), pages 1685-1707. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2021.1944846

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 9, 2021
Online Publication Date	Aug 9, 2021
Publication Date	Aug 31, 2022
Deposit Date	Aug 20, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Aug 20, 2021
Journal	Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
Print ISSN	0964-0568
Electronic ISSN	1360-0559
Publisher	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	65
Issue	9
Pages	1685-1704
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2021.1944846
Keywords	Environmental controversy; Environmental impact assessment; Public participation; Sustainable development; Taiwan
Public URL	https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1411683

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Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.