A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Transparency in conservation – rare species, secret files, and democracy




Subtitlerare species, secret files, and democracy

AuthorsMarkku Oksanen, Anne Kumpula

PublisherTaylor & Francis

Publishing placeLondon

Publication year2013

JournalEnvironmental Politics

Journal acronymenv pol

Number in series6

Volume22

Issue6

First page 975

Last page991

Number of pages17

ISSN0964-4016

eISSN1743-8934

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2013.775726(external)

Web address http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fenp20#.Uq7b5nen5ek(external)


Abstract
In many areas of environmental policy, there are clashing trends and conflicting
views concerning the accessibility of information and its appropriate
use. Some countries restrict access to environmental information if access
compromises the protection of species, but this contrasts with environmentalist
claims for transparency, the right to know, and the creation of the
‘green public sphere’. Can access to (biodiversity) information ever be
justifiably denied? The paradoxical trends in environmental policy can be
explained in terms of the dual role of information: as much as it contributes
to environmental causes, it simultaneously enables people to utilise or
destroy the objects of preservation. While recognising the problematic nature
of restricting transparency, epistemic asymmetries – the kind of case in
which public authorities have access to such information to which the public
is denied access – can sometimes be justified in terms of security.



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