A framework for coupling a participatory approach and life cycle assessment for public decision-making in rural territory management

The aim of this paper is to propose an innovative operational framework that couples life cycle assessment (LCA) and a participatory approach to overcome these issues. The first step was to conduct a progressive participatory diagnosis of the socio-ecological structure of the rural territory and to characterise the main cropping systems. The results of the diagnosis and other data were progressively triangulated, validated and consolidated with the stakeholders at the territorial level. The paper discusses the quality and validity of data obtained using a participatory approach. To improve the appropriation of results by stakeholders, the LCA method was applied using a territorial approach to distinguish on-site and off-site activities as well as global and local impacts. The applicability of the framework was tested on a case study in a semi-arid region in central Tunisia