TAI-Thailand 2nd Assessment has been undertaken during November 2004 and March 2005 with financial supports from the British government (UK Government’s Global Opportunities Fund). This time, Thailand Environment Institute, together with King Prajadhipok's Institute, Sustainable Development Foundation, Project Policy Strategy on Tropical Resource Base and experts from various organizations jointly established a “Thailand’s Coalition for Good Environmental Governance” in order to track the progress of pubic participation in environmental management in the country. In this assessment, five experts from governmental sector were invited to join the Research team in order to create coordination between the government and civil society organizations in promoting meaningful public participation. The number of national coalitions, therefore, has been increased totaling of 17 persons (11 researchers and 6 research assistants). To assure the quality of the findings from the assessment, a National Advisory Panel was established. The Panel included a total of 16 experts in relevant fields and representatives from stakeholder organizations associated with the case studies. In this assessment, 22 case studies were used to evaluate the degree of access to information, publication participation and capacity building in practice and the assessment was conducted during late November 2004 and beginning of March, 2005.

After having three Review Forums, where the Advisory Panel provided comments and suggestions regarding the findings and the indicators, and the subsequent revisions of the findings, the coalition held a “Seminar on Good Environmental Governance: Public Participation Indicators for Thailand’s Sustainable Development (2nd Assessment)” on July 25, 2005.

“Thailand’s Coalition for Good Environmental Governance” presented the assessment findings at the Public Review Seminar on July 25, 2005

The purpose of organizing the seminar was to disseminate the findings, collect opinions and suggestions from participants, raise public awareness and stimulate dialogues with the government on the implementation of the Access principles. Approximately 200 participants from all sectors including government agencies, private enterprises, local administrations, non-governmental organizations focusing on environment and legal issues, community groups, academics, press, and general public, attended the seminar. The Research Team has included opinions and recommendations from the seminar in the Thai edition of this report. Moreover, the opinions and recommendations from the seminar together with those from the advisory panel meetings have also been submitted to the global TAI coalitions for further improvement of the indicators.

The results of the 2nd national assessment are compiled into a publication in Thai language for distribution to relevant government agencies, NGOs and educational institutions. TEI is grateful to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Development Cooperation Foundation (DCF), and the Research and Development Office of the King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI) for their financial support for organizing the Public Review Seminar and publication of the report.

The publication entitled “Environmental Governance: Indicators for Public Participation of the Year 2005” (in Thai) is now available in hard copy (free of charge) and in electronic files. The separate executive summary is in the process of publication and expected to be released soon.

The report is also translated into English, entitled Thailand’s State of Environmental Governance Report 2005 (2nd Assessment) and will be available for download soon.

To make the report digestible to the general public, we are in the process of producing a summary in people version

Thailand Environment Institute and the National Coalition for Good Environmental Governance hope that this report will stimulate interests, create understanding and enhance awareness of general public and government officials in good environmental governance and public participation. This assessment also showed a good collaboration between civil society organizations and government agencies as representatives from government agencies had joined the Research team and involved in the Advisory Panel. This is viewed as a starting point for further collaboration in supporting a regular and continuing monitoring of government’s efforts to promote public participation. It is expected that the findings and recommendations will contribute to policy and action changes in such a way that they proactively ensure people’s access to information, decision-making and justice, and thus responsive to the intentions of both Thailand’s Constitution and the Principle 10 of Rio Declaration.