Nongovernmental organizations and the local environmental policy: A case study for the city of Novi Sad (Serbia)

Abstract

In the era of bottom-up development planning, social networking and capacity building, one of the key issues in governing local communities is how to enable citizen participation in policy making and practice. This especially refers to environmental issues as the environment is considered a public good. The ecological modernization as a contemporary theoretical mainstream in researching and planning environmental policy argues that citizen participation is one of the crucial elements in establishing an environmentally sensitive institutional framework for policy making. In exploring the possible patterns of citizen participation in environmental policy, it can be concluded that some type of connection among citizens often resulting in the formation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can be an efficient way to influence local policy making. Such organizations, although frequently balancing between formal and informal 'ways of doing things', are more likely to succeed in achieving their environmental interests and goals than are individuals because the organizations have greater access to resources such as financial support, information availability, social capital, human resources etc. In such context, the role and status of NGOs related to environmental issues is being analyzed. As a subject of the research, the NGOs are especially interesting at the local community level because they seem to be more closely connected to the citizens. In the post-socialist and transitional societies, such as contemporary Serbia, the role of environmental NGOs is regarded not only from the standpoint of environmental protection but also as a pattern of political decentralization and a manner of modernizing (local) governance.The role and status of NGOs in local environmental policy is analyzed according to the data collected in the survey that covered all environmental NGOs registered at the city of Novi Sad. Five major issues are being analyzed: human resources, available equipment and facilities, areas of interest and activities of NGOs, cooperation and information and funding. Those issues are addressed not only with the respect to the potential negotiating power of the environmental NGOs in the policy actors' network but also with the respect to their ability to influence development of a community's environmental awareness. © 2012 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.