2. Methods and framework description
This section reviews the literature, highlighting discussions that concern environmental projects and their participation
techniques. Our proposed framework, presented in Fig. 1, is the result of this analysis (Luyet, 2005). It is structured as a system with inputs (e.g. environmental policy), outputs (e.g. decisions) and processes. To implement such a system, stakeholders must be identified, characterized and organized, in order to give them a specific degree of participation, thereby accounting for their heterogeneity. Participatory techniques must then be chosen according to the specified degree of participation. The idea is that stakeholders can be involved to different degrees, using parallel and varying participatory techniques. Finally, when the entire process has been completed, an evaluation must be conducted. In
the following sections, each step of this framework will be described.