Introduction and topic of investigationThe Environmental Impact Assessment (hereinafter referred to as EIA) system came into existence in 1969 when it was first introduced in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). in the United States of America (Baker and Wood, 1999) and subsequently spread throughout the world. Today, South Africa is one of the countries in the world that has adopted and adapted the EIA system as part of its environmental legislation (enacted in the Environmental Conservation Act (73 of 1997). , under Articles 21, 22 and 26) and its management (Sandham and Pretorius, 2008). any development could have on the environment, whether negative or positive, before approval, to determine/decide whether a proposed development should proceed or not (Jay et al, 2007, DEA, 2010 and DEA 2012). South Africa has adapted the EIA system and incorporated its fundamental principle (protection of the environment) into the country's constitution The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (No. 108 of 1996). ), Article 24, states that “Everyone has the right: (a) to an environment which does not harm his health or well-being. -be; and (b) protect the environment, for the benefit of present and future generations, by reasonable legislative and other measures…” The South African Government has implemented the National Environmental Management Act (No. 107 of 1998) for the purpose of enforcing Article 24 (b) of the Constitution. This law (hereinafter referred to as NEMA) goes even further since it states, in section 2, that all interested parties a...... middle of paper ....... If they are incorporated In the current EIA system, these tools can lengthen the time required to complete a PP process, but this also has the potential to bring the general public to a point where they can have confidence and interest in the environment in which they lives and makes decisions that affect its environment. After all, as the popular saying goes, trust must be earned.The Purpose of This ResearchThe purpose of this research is to discover if there is a way to address this apparent lack of participation. One of the possible solutions proposed to this problem lies in participatory research methodologies, particularly Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA). The aim is to see if the current PP process can integrate some of the PRA methodologies in order to improve the current situation regarding actual PP “participation”.