A PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO WATERSHED MANAGEMENT: THE BRAZILIAN SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT: Brazil is currently facing the challenge of implementing a new water resources management system to promote the rational and sustainable use of the country's waters. This system is based on the following principles of water management: (2) stakeholders' participation; (2) the watershed as the planning and management unit; and (3) the economic value of water. Stakeholders' participation and the involvement of civil society in the decision making process is guaranteed by permanent seats in the watersheds' management committees. These committees are the highest decision level for the establishment of water policy and for planning its use. The executive branch of the committees is the watershed agency or the water agency. This paper presents the recently approved Brazilian water resources management system and discusses the participatory approach followed to validate and to ensure prompt response to decisions regarding water use by all stakeholders. The formulation of the National Water Law (January/1998) was also supported by extensive consultation with civil society, professional associations, state and municipal governments as well as with federal governmental agencies and private sector organizations. It also presents an overview of the formulation of the National Water Law. Finally, as watershed committees have been created and are already operating in a limited number of watersheds, some of the major obstacles to the success of the new system are discussed along with alternatives for overcoming such obstacles.     

Promoting environmental awareness in Botswana: the role of community education

Summary This paper highlights the environmental problems confronting Botswana, which include growing pressure on water resources resulting from increases in population, urbanization and development, deforestation, overgrazing and rangeland degradation in the face of unfavourable environmental and climatic conditions. The paper also describes the role of the government through its National Conservation Strategy, and how this proffers possible solutions to these probems. Such solutions include, among others improved planning and administrative measures in the interest of both protecting water resources against pollution and the possible introduction of an incentive to encourage the collection of rain water, and government legislation which will lead to improvement in the management of both rangelands and livestock to prevent rangeland degradation, as well as the government intention to update its forestry policy to provide a comprehensive National Forestry Management Plan. The paper also examines the efforts of nongovernmental organizations including the Kalahari Conservation Society, the Forestry Association of Botswana, Thusano Lefatsheng and the Botswana Society. These non-governmental organizations are greatly involved in natural resource conservation and utilization and, in addition, they provide avenues for the discussion of issues relating to the environment and natural resources for public awareness. The paper finally discusses the role of community education, by examining the environmental awareness in terms of the population.This paper was presented at the Global Forum '94 Academic Conference, Manchester, UK.     

Coastal Zone Problems and Environmental Strategies to be Implemented at Edremit Bay, Turkey

This case study examines the coastal zone problems focusing on the existing conflicts between tourism and commercial activities on the coasts of Edremit Bay, Turkey, and attempts to suggest solutions to these problems. Edremit Bay is a characteristic example of such a conflict in collective use of natural resources. The study area, with its 100-km-long sandy beach, naturally attracts different coastal user groups with different beneficial expectations: in terms of rest and recreation for one group and commercial gain offered in a variety of ways for another group. Significant coastal zone problems exist in the study area. Deterioration of shoreline due to tourism activities and illegal constructions, damage to the coastal ecosystem due to domestic/industrial wastewater discharges and some agricultural activities, and disordered urbanization are only a few of the many problems. The data presented here were partly derived from field study and partly collected from local state or private organizations. In this study, it is emphasized that there is a need for viable economic and environmental strategies to be designated in Edremit Bay, Turkey, in order to provide sustainable resource use. For this purpose, an integrated project together with a relevant planning chart including subprojects is also suggested. The success of a local environmental protection management project depends on active participation of all stakeholders including governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations.     

Incorporating Complex Adaptive Systems Theory into Strategic Planning: The Sierra Nevada Conservancy

Conservation organizations rely increasingly on integrated planning approaches that explicitly address social and economic goals while pursuing ecological conservation. Moreover, the spatial and temporal scale at which these organizations operate is growing. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy, established as a new state agency by California legislation in 2004 to pursue social, economic and ecological sustainability across a 25 million acre region, exemplifies this large-scale, integrated approach. Therefore, the new agency faces a complex set of policy objectives that must be pursued across a widely varying geography of social, economic and ecological conditions. Using the Conservancy's fire management program area as an example, the paper illustrates how application of an analytic framework from complex adaptive systems theory can guide the Conservancy to deploy its resources more effectively than broader-scale application of a single, agency-wide strategy relying on a more static model. Therefore, the complex adaptive systems framework offers promise in strategic planning. The paper illustrates how the model's four-stage cycle can be applied at the sub-regional and programmatic level to identify opportunities for agency intervention that address varying local conditions. This approach is likely to increase the effectiveness of programs for agencies facing similar complexities and challenges.     

Combining Landscape-Level Conservation Planning and Biodiversity Offset Programs: A Case Study

Habitat loss is major factor in the endangerment and extinction of species around the world. One promising strategy to balance continued habitat loss and biodiversity conservation is that of biodiversity offsets. However, a major concern with offset programs is their consistency with landscape-level conservation goals. While merging offset polices and landscape-level conservation planning is thought to provide advantages over a traditional disconnected approach, few such landscape-level conservation-offset plans have been designed and implemented, so the effectiveness of such a strategy remains uncertain. In this study, we quantitatively assess the conservation impact of combining landscape-level conservation planning and biodiversity offset programs by comparing regions of San Diego County, USA with the combined approach to regions with only an offset program. This comparison is generally very difficult due to a variety of complicating factors. We overcome these complications and quantify the benefits to rare and threatened species of implementing a combined approach by assessing the amount of each species’ predicted distribution, and the number of documented locations, conserved in comparison to the same metric for areas with an offset policy alone. We found that adoption of the combined approach has increased conservation for many rare species, often 5–10 times more than in the comparison area, and that conservation has been focused in the areas most important for these species. The level of conservation achieved reduces uncertainty that these species will persist in the region into the future. This San Diego County example demonstrates the potential benefits of combining landscape-level conservation planning and biodiversity offset programs.     

Conservation and Management of the Endangered Fiji Sago Palm, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Metroxylon vitiense</Emphasis>, in Fiji

Recovery planning is a key component of many threatened species conservation initiatives and can be a powerful awareness raising tool. One of the largest impediments to conservation efforts in the Pacific region however, is the lack of ecological data and its subsequent effects on the development of feasible and useful recovery plans for threatened species. Without these plans, the understaffed, underfunded and often technically ill-equipped conservation agencies face huge difficulties in planning, prioritizing and conducting conservation activities to adequately protect biodiversity. The Fiji sago palm, Metroxylon vitiense, is an endemic endangered palm species whose survival is heavily dependent on a feasible species recovery plan. It is geographically restricted and threatened by habitat destruction and overexploitation for thatch for the tourism industry and palm heart consumption by local consumers. Despite its threatened status, M. vitiense is not currently protected by national or international legislation. Recent field surveys and extensive stakeholder consultation have resulted in the production of a species recovery plan highlighting the importance of the species and advocating sustainable harvesting rather than complete bans to promote conservation. This article summarizes the recovery plan and its current effects on the status of M. vitiense in Fiji. We also discuss the role of different stakeholders in the conservation of M. vitiense, including the absence of significant behavioral changes by the largest consumer - the tourism industry, and the importance of recovery plans for biodiversity conservation in the Pacific.     

Groundwater management by watershed agencies: an evaluation of the capacity of Ontario's conservation authorities

Watershed-based resource management organizations around the world are becoming more involved in groundwater management. This reflects, among other considerations, growing awareness of the critical role that these local agencies can and should play in the management of groundwater resources. Ontario's conservation authorities (CAs) are an important example. CAs are taking on new responsibilities for groundwater data collection, monitoring and planning. Unfortunately, not all local organizations are equally capable of participating effectively in groundwater management. This certainly is the case among Ontario's 38 CAs, which have highly variable levels of financial and staff resources. Local capacity for water management can be explored from the perspective of the institutional environment, the watershed community, and the financial, technical and staff resources of the organizations. This paper presents an evaluation of the groundwater management capacity of Ontario's conservation authorities, drawing on two detailed case studies (the Upper Thames River CA and the Ganaraska Region CA), and additional data gathered from all 38 CAs. Institutional issues, such as the clarity of management roles and senior government commitment to local management, as well as resourcing concerns, local working relationships, and public support, largely determine the capacity of CAs to expand their involvement in groundwater management. Strengthening the capacity of watershed-based agencies to participate in groundwater management is an important challenge in all jurisdictions, as these agencies are well placed to reinforce municipal groundwater management by identifying local needs and trends, facilitating communication and cooperation, and promoting best management practices.     

WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT-PLANNING FOR ACTION1

ABSTRACT: Proper planning of water resource management programs is the essential ingredient for effective decision-making. Increasing demands on our finite water resources make it more vital that programs get off the shelf and are acted upon. There is a gap between our intentions for and OUI results from the planning process. We should examine our failures, identify causes, and learn from them. One of the primary causes is failure to identify the potentials of the implementing agencies early in the planning process. These agencies constitute a hierarchy of governmental units at national, state, regional and local levels. Each of these levels has its own interests, point of view, capabilities and constraints. A plan which is technically and functionally sound can fail as a program if these conflicting interests are not accounted for. The implementation mechanisms must be identified as an initial phase of the planning process. All levels of the governmental hierarchy must be involved throughout the planning process. The successful plan must also provide for suitable assignment of responsibilities which are accepted by the executing agency and monitored for satisfactory fulfillment. Consistency and continuity of the advocate agency are further essential elements to the success of the plan. Experience in water resource management planning has shown that these strategies will produce programs which are accepted, implemented and accomplish the goals and objectives of the planning process.     

Building Capacity for Protected Area Management in Lao PDR

Declining biodiversity in protected areas in Laos is attributed to unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. At a basic level, an important need is to develop capacity in academic and professional training institutions to provide relevant training to conservation professionals. The paper (a) describes the capacity building approach undertaken to achieve this goal, (b) evaluates the effectiveness of the approach in building capacity for implementing conservation and (c) reviews implementation outcomes. Strong linkages between organizations implementing field conservation, professional training institutions, and relevant Government agencies are central to enhancing effectiveness of capacity building initiatives aimed at improving the practice of conservation. Protected area management technical capacity needs will need to directly influence curriculum design to insure both relevance and effectiveness of training in improving protected area management. Sustainability of capacity building initiatives is largely dependent on the level of interest and commitment by host-country institutions within a supportive Government policy framework in addition to engagement of organizations implementing conservation.     

Where Did the Agricultural Nonpoint Source Trades Go? Lessons from Virginia Water Quality Trading Programs

Governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and agricultural organizations promote water quality trading programs as an innovative policy to engage agricultural producers in conservation activities. Cost analyses suggest regulated sources can reduce compliance costs by purchasing agricultural nonpoint source credits. Yet, such “point‐nonpoint” trades are rare. This article assesses the demand for agricultural nonpoint sources in well‐developed nutrient trading programs in Virginia for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants, municipal stormwater programs, and land developers. Evidence suggests nutrient trading programs in Virginia will not stimulate investments in pollutant reduction practices on working agricultural lands. The lack of demand for agricultural nonpoint source credits can be attributed to a substantial degree to the design features and incentives present in multiple overlapping regulatory programs. The legal setting that dampens regulated source demand for nonpoint source credits in Virginia is broadly representative of conditions found elsewhere in the United States.     

Opportunities and constraints for organizations to help sustain tropical forest resources

A large number of organizations make decisions that directly or indirectly affect tropical forests. The principal constraints that affect these organizations are (1) insufficient funds; (2) insufficient knowledge about the resources and appropriate technologies; (3) institutional, cultural, and political factors; (4) inadequate communication; and (5) contradictory efforts. Opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of these organizations include (1) increasing cooperation among US government agencies; (2) redirecting international organizations; (3) increasing coordination among organizations; (4) boosting support of nongovernmental organizations and universities; (5) encouraging responsible involvement by private corporations; (6) strengthening existing organizations; and (7) creating new organizations.This article is drawn from US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1984), Technologies to Sustain Tropical Forest Resources, chap. 5. Other articles drawn from the OTA report are Hyman (1984a and b) and Hyman and Ross-Sheriff (1984). A larger number of organizations with activities related to tropical forestry are briefly described in the background paper (US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment 1983).     

Defining success over time for large landscape conservation organizations

Transboundary issues, like climate change, threaten the health of natural ecosystems. To address these problems, management is taking place at larger geographic scales and across political boundaries. Although landscapes are considered the suitable scale for conservation, limited research exists on how members of large landscape conservation organizations (LLCOs) define success. The Crown Managers Partnership (CMP) and the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Cooperative (SAMAB) are two LLCOs that support collaboration for the conservation of the Northern Rockies and the Southern Appalachian regions. We analyze the diverse interpretations of success among SAMAB and CMP participants during different stages of the organizations’ life cycle. Of particular importance is how members emphasize intangible successes such as relationships and the cascading effects LLCOs can have on other projects and organizations. This research provides insight into the distinct niche LLCOs fill in transboundary ecosystem management.     

Compliance of Australian threatened species recovery plans with legislative requirements

Recovery plans are the main documents supporting management decision-making for threatened species. We evaluated Australian recovery plans to assess their appropriateness as conservation and management planning instruments. Six legislative requirements (species information and general requirements, species distribution and location, known and potential threats, objectives, performance criteria and actions, duration of the plan, and estimated costs of plan implementation) were used to assess the degree of compliance of recovery plans with the relevant legislation. We assessed all 236 official recovery plans which had been adopted as at January 2006. The results showed that plans were most compliant regarding the setting of objectives, performance criteria, recovery actions, and duration of plan. Most plans included a single performance criterion that was generally related to the population status of target species. Improvement is required in relation to identification of current threats and critical habitats, and the establishment of basic elements of monitoring and evaluation for measuring recovery progress. Gaps in ecological information are the main factors affecting adequate compliance with legislative requirements as opposed to managerial information (e.g. clarity in establishing the implementation schedule, costs and resource allocation). Planning deficiencies could be addressed by improving the recovery planning guidelines and more carefully reviewing the drafting and adoption of new plans.     

Buy Me a River: Purchasing Water Rights to Restore River Flows in the Western USA

In recent decades, public and private environmental entities have been purchasing or leasing water rights across the Western United States (U.S.) in efforts to restore river flows and aquatic ecosystems. The need to pay for flow restoration arises from the fact that state governments did not begin to reserve water for instream purposes until the 1970s, long after water rights had become over‐appropriated and flows were substantially depleted in most rivers. As a consequence, flow depletion has become the leading cause of fish endangerment in the U.S., including the imperilment of two‐thirds of all native fish species in the Colorado River system. This paper takes stock of the progress made in buying water for the environment, specifically by reviewing and analyzing more than 50 transactions executed by public and private entities and the sources of funding underpinning these transactions. We conclude that nongovernmental actors — such as environmental organizations and state water trusts — are integral to regional efforts to restore river flows; these nongovernmental actors executed more than two‐thirds of the transactions we documented. However, we also conclude that the long‐term success of these nongovernmental actors depends upon the availability of sustained public funding that enables them to build capacity and engage in the large number of transactions needed to restore flows across each state.     

Does adding more lettuce make a hamburger truly green? A metaphor behind the green movement paradigm in designing cities

In designing cities, the label of the green movement these days is being applied to almost everything—starting from works of environmental non-governmental organizations and international as well as local conservation organizations to grass-roots resistance activism including radical environmentalism. This paper seeks to understand the motivation—the paradigm—behind the green movement initiatives and how the paradigm appears to shift from the ground reality. Conclusions suggest that, on one hand, environmental problems are far from being a matter of common sense and, on the other, the matter of intellectual and technological developments—the outcomes of rigorous academic research reflected in endless literature predominantly comprising the fields of environmental sociology, environmental anthropology, and conservation psychology—are in reality often found to be dealt with by shallow planning and policy practices without even realizing the big-picture that the paradigm is merely being used as an advertizing tool for making business profit. It is expected that, unless a shift from such negative practices towards a conscious and genuine commitment to proactive environmental stewardship is made, the situation will continue to be exacerbated.     

A SYSTEMS RESOURCES APPROACH TO CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: THE CASE OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS1

ABSTRACT: The thesis of this paper is that the citizen participation process provides necessary, but not sufficient conditions to affect substantive change in federal water resource management agencies' planning and decisionmaking. That is, in its present form, the citizen participation process has been observed to occur outside of the normal decision arenas of federal resource management agencies. The paper reviews concepts of citizen participation and defines some theoretical problems inherent with them. Then, a strategy for the structuring of a citizen participation process is proposed. This strategy is based upon the notion that citizen support for federally sponsored programs are essential if such projects are to be implemented. Therefore, an approach which integrates citizen valves with those held by other institutions and the agency is suggested. In conclusion, the relevancy of actively developing and including citizen input to the water resource planning process is illustrated by a discussion of three cases of the Corps of Engineers and Urban Studies planning process, in different metropolitan regions.     

Implementing Municipal Tree Planting: Los Angeles Million-Tree Initiative

Urban forests are increasingly being seen as an important infrastructure that can help cities remediate their environmental impacts. This work reports on the first steps in implementing a million tree program in Los Angeles and the ways such a biogenic—living—infrastructure has been approached. Numbers of studies have been done to quantify the benefits of urban forests, but little has been written on the process of implementing urban tree planting programs. The investigative methods were primarily qualitative, involving interviews, attending meetings and conducting literature reviews. Results indicate that multiple nonprofit and city agency programs are involved in planting and maintaining trees and this has required coordination among groups that here-to-fore were unaccustomed to having to collaborate. The main finding that emerge from this research is that the implementation of such a program in Los Angeles is more complicated than it may seem due to several interacting factors: the need to rely on multiple public and private organizations to put trees into the ground and to maintain them; coordination of these multiple efforts must be centralized, but requires a great deal of time and effort and maybe resisted by some of the partners; funding for planting and long term maintenance must be pieced together from multiple sources; acceptance of trees by residents varies by neighborhood as does tree canopy cover; appropriate nursery supply can be limited; the location of the program within the city administration is determined by who initiates the program.     

A Strategy for Prioritizing Threats and Recovery Actions for At-Risk Species

Ensuring the persistence of at-risk species depends on implementing conservation actions that ameliorate threats. We developed and implemented a method to quantify the relative importance of threats and to prioritize recovery actions based on their potential to affect risk to Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii). We used assessments of threat importance and elasticities of demographic rates from population matrix models to estimate the relative contributions of threats to overall increase in risk to the population. We found that urbanization, human access, military operations, disease, and illegal use of off highway vehicles are the most serious threats to the desert tortoise range-wide. These results suggest that, overall, recovery actions that decrease habitat loss, predation, and crushing will be most effective for recovery; specifically, we found that habitat restoration, topic-specific environmental education, and land acquisition are most likely to result in the greatest decrease in risk to the desert tortoise across its range. In addition, we have developed an application that manages the conceptual model and all supporting information and calculates threat severity and potential effectiveness of recovery actions. Our analytical approach provides an objective process for quantifying threats, prioritizing recovery actions, and developing monitoring metrics for those actions for adaptive management of any at-risk species.     

The conservation benefits of cost-effective land acquisition: A case study in Maryland

Economic theory asserts that to achieve maximum conservation benefits land acquisition needs to be cost effective. Yet the most common planning technique used by land conservation organizations is ‘benefit-targeting’ that focuses only on acquiring parcels with the highest benefits and ignores costs. Unlike most of the literature which focuses on covering problems, this research applies optimization techniques to achieve maximum aggregate conservation benefits for an ongoing land acquisition effort in the Catoctin Mountain Region in central Maryland. For this case study, optimization yields additional conservation benefits worth an estimated $3.1–$3.9 million or achieves the same level of conservation benefits but at a cost savings ranging from $0.9 to $3.5 million, depending on the initial budget size. Finally, the highest efficiencies are achieved in low budget scenarios, like those most prevalent in conservation efforts.     

Integrated Ecological and Regional Planning in a Rapid-Growth Setting

Toronto is among the fastest-growing urban regions in North America. Regional efforts to preserve rural landscapes and remnant habitat have had variable success. In the 1990s, significant conflict emerged over proposals to build large housing developments on portions of the Oak Ridges Moraine, a 160-km stretch of environmentally sensitive land along the city’s northern edge. After years of planning conflict, Ontario’s provincial government created the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan, an Act of the Ontario Legislature. The Plan represents a dramatic change in Ontario’s approach to conservation planning. We examine the development and implementation of the Conservation Plan as an example of environmental planning policy in a complex urban setting. Data from interviews with policy actors, planning agency documents, and geospatial sources are used to construct an analysis and discussion of the Plan and its implementation. From a policy research perspective, the evolution and implementation of the Plan require analysis and monitoring to better understand how such approaches can best be implemented. The Conservation Plan marks a change in policy in Ontario, and the implementation process highlights challenges in putting conservation plans into practice.