“Fair balance” in the Russian regional public environmental councils

Introduction: advisory institutions are now called “frontier” organizations that link science, politics, and society. For public authorities, ensuring support for its positions through processes of participation and interaction with stakeholders has become as important as ensuring a deeper understanding of problems and developing solutions using scientific and professional knowledge. Accordingly, a balanced representation of experts presenting, on the one hand, specialized knowledge, and, on the other hand, the interests of stakeholders, can be vital for the potential effectiveness of such public bodies. The environmental field covers many interests, as well as technical and scientific knowledge, hence requiring a wide range of actors in making more environmentally beneficial decisions. However, due to serious disproportions in the ecological situation, various regions of the Russian Federation may show a different degree of a certain type of experts and, accordingly, the presence of “fair balance” representation.