This paper reviews progress of environmental democracy, from a selection of references devoted to the territorial dimension of resource management, risk control and nuisance prevention. We first analyze the origin and the normative foundations of participation and then draw, on one hand, the design of environmental democracy and, on the other, collaborative management of the environment. We then focus on the concrete implementation of participation through, firstly, the presentation of three forms of participation (advisory committees, public debates and citizens’ juries) and, secondly, analysis of their effects on actors of environmental decision. Finally, we debate about environmental democracy, pointing out in particular its embedding in a collaborative management with which it has complex relationships. Lastly we propose a more general criticism of this new paradigm and outline some of research perspectives.