Perkins, Patricia E. (Ellie)2020-03-092020-03-092011“Public Participation in Watershed Management: International Practices for Inclusiveness.” Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 36.5-6 (2011): 204–212.1474-7065http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2010.02.004https://hdl.handle.net/10315/37071This paper outlines a number of examples from around the world of participatory processes for watershed decision-making, and discusses how they work, why they are important, their social and ecological potential, and the practical details of how to start, expand and develop them. Because of longstanding power differentials in all societies along gender, class and ethnic lines, equitable public participation requires the recognition that different members of society have different kinds of relationships with the environment in general, and with water in particular. From a range of political perspectives, inclusive participatory governance processes have many benefits. The author has recently completed a 5 year project linking universities and NGOs in Brazil and Canada to develop methods of broadening public engagement in local watershed management committees, with a special focus on gender and marginalized communities. The innovative environmental education and multi-lingual international public engagement practices of the Centre for Socio-Environmental Knowledge and Care of the La Plata Basin (which spans Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) are also discussed in this paper.enAuthor can archive pre-print and post-print but cannot archive publisher's version/PDFAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 CanadaWater managementPublic ParticipationParticipatory governanceGender and environmental managementWater and social equityDemocratic participationWatershed management communitySocio-Environmental KnowledgeEquitable public participationArticlehttp://www.elsevier.com/locate/pce