Limiti e utilità degli strumenti partecipativi nella pianificazione ambientale

[Autom. eng. transl.] Today there is much talk of participatory tools and their use in public and private decision-making processes; above all, their use seems to have been consolidated in environmental and territorial planning, and in the urban context. Furthermore, the use of these tools is no longer sporadic or left to the free initiative of some willing people, as demonstrated for example by the fact that these represent the object of a relatively recent European directive. However, some continue to express some concern about the real effectiveness and utility of participation: in particular, those who choose to adopt such a system challenge it to slow down the decision-making process; while those who are called to participate criticize the fact that they hardly ever see their will translated into anything in fact. Why - then - are there such divergent trends? Perhaps simply because the experiments carried out so far are very numerous and very different, in terms of the type of instruments used, methods of organizing the work and involving the stakeholders, and also the results achieved. The present contribution, therefore, without any pretense of completeness, has as its main objective the identification of some key elements for the success of the participatory practices; the food for thought are provided by the numerous experiences lived directly in the field, of which the most significant are briefly illustrated below. The work, therefore, is structured as follows: in the first paragraph, some hypotheses are put forward on why - today - participatory instruments are so widely used, particularly in the planning and territorial and environmental planning phases of the public sector. The next four paragraphs are dedicated to the illustration of some forms of participatory planning, and, in addition to representing a partial - but roadway - picture of possible different ways of participating, they offer some points for reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of such instruments. Finally, some final considerations on the subject are presented in the last paragraph.