Integrated stakeholder prioritization criteria for environmental management.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Management
• Decision Science
• Stakeholder Theory

Background:

• Effective stakeholder engagement improves decision-making.
• Environmental management often involves diverse stakeholder groups.
• Current methods lack explicit stakeholder prioritization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a set of criteria for prioritizing stakeholders in environmental management.
• To address the challenge of identifying and engaging appropriate stakeholder groups.
• To lay the groundwork for future decision support tools.

Main Methods:

• Literature review to identify prioritization criteria.
• Proposal of ten distinct criteria for stakeholder evaluation.
• Discussion of the relevance and application of these criteria.

Main Results:

• Ten criteria for stakeholder prioritization were identified: interest, influence, impact magnitude/probability, urgency, proximity, economic interest, rights, fairness, and representation.
• These criteria offer a comprehensive framework for evaluating stakeholders.
• The proposed criteria can guide future decision support systems.

Conclusions:

• A standardized set of criteria can enhance stakeholder prioritization in environmental management.
• Further development and testing are needed to integrate these criteria into practice.
• Prioritization is key to effective and equitable environmental decision-making.