Understanding impact assessment from other perspectives: what might nature have to say?

ABSTRACT

What would impact assessment (IA) look like from the perspective of Nature? This paper intends to provoke a conversation about including Nature in the IA process. It is an intentional provocation to challenge the businessasusual approach driven by proponents. Using reflexivity and embedding images in the text, along with literature review from within IA and wider interdisciplinary thinking, the means for the environment to participate are explored. The paper argues for allowing Nature a voice by including the environment as a stakeholder in a more relational approach to IA.

KEYWORDS:

• Deep ecology
• neoliberalism
• biodiversity
• visual communication
• net gain
• arts based practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).