Sustainable Planning for Resource and Environmental Management

1. Sustainable Planning for Resource and Environmental Management Major Topics for this Week • Three waves of innovation in environmental governance over the past 50 years in pursuing sustainability goals • Approaches to citizen involvement and conflict resolution employed in sustainability governance • Basic characteristics of participatory approaches and the key processes and elements of social learning • How best practices in participatory and social learning approaches might contribute to improvements in sustainability governance

2. Sustainability is Different Things to Different People ..

3. Sustainability: New Principles and Heightened Conflict • In late 1980s, emerging sustainability principles heightened conflicts in resource and environmental management • Recognition of increasing change, complexity and uncertainty enhanced the challenges facing decision-makers • Biophysical and socio-economic interactions created a further need for governance innovations

4. Sustainability Governance: Three Waves of New Thinking • First wave (mid-1960s to late 1980s): • Originated in the USA, then Canada and, lastly, global • Citizen involvement, and three foci: urban development, river basin management, and environmental assessment of projects • Second wave (late 1980s to 2000): • Sustainable development (Brundtland report, 1987) • Techniques for multi-stakeholder—conflict resolution, consensus-building processes—lengthy, costly • Third wave (since 2000): • Assessing progress since Agenda 21 (1992); continuing innovations and emphasis on “measuring” sustainability • Strategic emphasis on revitalizing democratic governance—reform that addresses the three pillars of sustainability

5. Terminology Related to Governance • Environmental governance is the broadest term, and includes who makes decisions and how they are made • Environmental management refers to ‘actual decision and action concerning policy and practice regarding how resources and the environment are appraised, allocated, developed, used, rehabilitated, remediated and restored, monitored and evaluated’ (Mitchell 2002, 6–8) • Institutional arrangements refer to the formal and informal sets of structures, agencies, organizations, policies, programs, strategies, norms, and values generated by various interests • Terminology for implementing governance: e.g. citizen involvement, conflict resolution, participatory activities, social learning

6. Assessing Governance Innovations: Basic Principles and Shifting Models Principles of ‘Good’ Environmental Governance • Legitimacy • Fairness and accountability • Strategic vision • Adaptive and experimental Changing models for sustainability governance: • role of governments decreased, while that of business and civil society* increased • competing managerialist, pluralist and populist approaches • shift from ‘left’ vs ‘right’ approaches to third way *Def. “the elements such as freedom of speech and an independent judiciary that make up a democratic society”

7. The Third Way … various political positions which try to reconcile right wing and left wing politics by advocating a synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies. Wikipedia

8. Prospects for Environmental Governance Innovation • Given increasing globalization, climate worries and environmental disasters, governance reform is needed • Yet this is difficult and conflict-ridden .. • Organized civil disobedience (e.g., WTO events) occurring in tandem with widespread ‘apathy’ and ‘cynicism’ • Increasing frustration, legitimacy challenges and charges of democratic deficit (i.e. a lack of democratic accountability) in social, economic and environmental affairs • We cannot yet see the next “wave”, as the situation is confusing, unpredictable and complex

9. Responses: Participatory Approaches and Social Learning (PASL) Participatory approaches involve key stakeholders and publics, early and ongoing participation, citizen control over decision-making, and use of multiple involvement techniques Social learning emphasizes collective learning by groups as a means of adapting to and driving change Participatory approaches emphasize multiple knowledge sources, dialogue, mutual learning and continual evolution of ideas Often, this is when the traditional, top–down programming approach may not work

10. Characteristics of Participatory Approaches Breadth of participation—examines who is involved in any given resource and environmental management function ? There are multiple publics: Active or inactive publics; Gender issues; Are stakeholders different from or part of the public? Degrees of participation—refer to the extent to which managers and their key publics share decision-making power Timing of participation… examines at what point key publics are brought into planning and decision-making processes

11. Some Possible Participatory Approaches (Mitchell 2002) • Information-out: should meet information needs of key publics, e.g., advertisements, technical reports, public meetings • Information-in: should give interested publics opportunities to present their views, e.g. public hearings, workshops, and interviews • Continuous exchange: mechanisms for establishing ongoing dialogue among managers and key publics, e.g. advisory committees, task forces and community boards • Facilitating consensus: a long-term function requiring techniques such as mediation and negotiation

12. Public Participation Techniques

13. What is Social Learning? An emerging framework in resource and environmental management Recognizes that “learning” applies to social collectives, such as groups, formal organizations, and communities Core concepts link individual and collective learning and suggest that participatory approaches are central to learning by social collectives Three models of social learning are presented: civics approach; collective cognition; and sustainability learning E.g. civics approach emphasizes understanding of the linkages between social and natural systems and an interactive and adaptive approach to social learning

14. Interactive and Iterative Decision Processes in the Civics Approach

15. Participation and Social learning: Canadian Planning Applications • Resource and environmental management research— participatory approaches are gaining prominence, particularly with social systems and social-ecological systems • Forest management—from single, industrial use to multiple use and greater movement toward increased public involvement in forest planning on an ecosystem basis • Co-management—sharing of management authority and responsibility, information and knowledge • In contrast, environmental impact assessment (EIA)—not exactly highly participatory in contrast to what’s possible; for example …

16. Example: Sustainability Governance of Greater Vancouver • Two million people—third largest metropolis in Canada • 22 member-municipalities • Strong economic growth • Downtown eastside: drugs, crime, homelessness, poverty • Suburban sprawl and auto-dependency • Invest in mass transit? • Creating a sustainable region: http://www.Metrovancouver.Org

17. Greater Vancouver Governance: Multi-stakeholder Co-operation • MetroVan is a federation of municipalities voluntarily participating in joint service delivery and planning • Four key principles of the Liveable Region Strategic Plan(LRSP): • Protect green zones • Build “complete” communities • Maintain urban compactness • Increase transportation choice • In 2002, the Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI) expanded the LRSP

18. Governance Innovation in Greater Vancouver • An Experimental Development Agenda • Citizen’s Commission on Greater Vancouver governance • Electoral reform • Multi-stakeholder engagement • While Greater Vancouver has been the focus, approach could be applied in any urbanizing region in Canada • Greater Vancouver is undoubtedly one place to watch the shape and force of the “new wave”