Lessons from an Evaluation of a Boater Outreach Program for Manatee Protection

Watercraft collisions account for 25–30% of manatee deaths annually in Florida. Education and outreach interventions for boaters are strategies for reducing manatee mortality. We evaluated the effectiveness of the Manatee Watch program by surveying primary boat users whose boats were approached by Manatee Watch. We compared the attitudes, knowledge, and behavioral intentions of boaters who received Manatee Watch materials with a control group of boaters observed by the Florida Marine Research Institute in Tampa Bay during 1999–2001. Results of the 51-item telephone survey with 499 boaters indicated that the Manatee Watch intervention had little effect on boater’s attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding manatees. However, individual attitude scores were positively correlated with safe boating behaviors in shallow waters including maintaining a slower speed and watching out for manatees. Overall knowledge about manatees was correlated with one manatee-safe boating behavior. To improve efficacy, educators should (a) incorporate evaluation into the planning stages of program development; (b) target messages to influence boaters’ attitudes toward manatees and ecosystem health, and their feelings of ownership and empowerment; (c) facilitate active participation of the boaters; and (d) increase the duration and variety of intervention.     

Enhanced learning from multi-stakeholder partnerships: Lessons from the Enabling Rural Innovation in Africa programme

Despite increasing interest and support for multi‐stakeholder partnerships, empirical applications of participatory evaluation approaches to enhance learning from partnerships are either uncommon or undocumented. This paper draws lessons on the use of participatory self‐reflective approaches that facilitate structured learning on processes and outcomes of partnerships. Such practice is important to building partnerships, because it helps partners understand how they can develop more collaborative and responsive ways of managing partnerships. The paper is based on experience with the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) in Africa programme. Results highlight the dynamic process of partnership formation and the key elements that contribute to success. These include: (i) shared vision and complementarity, (ii) consistent support from senior leadership; (iii) evidence of institutional and individual benefits; (iv) investments in human and social capital; (v) joint resources mobilization. However, key challenges require coping with high staff turnover and over‐commitment, conflicting personalities and institutional differences, high transaction costs, and sustaining partnerships with the private business sector. The paper suggests that institutionalizing multi‐stakeholder partnerships requires participatory reflective practices that help structure and enhance learning, and incrementally help in building the capacity of research and development organisations to partner better and ultimately to innovate.     

Training as a component of the consulting contract

Summary Expatriate consultants are employed in developing countries to perform assessments of the consequences to natural resources and the environment of projects for economic development. Eventually (and as soon as possible) the developing countries must be able to do their own assessments and provide continual guidance to economic planning and management. The presence of foreign experts offers an opportunity to transfer technology and skills during the course of consultancies. A training component can be added with appropriate additional compensation. Some of the barriers to successful training are identified and explored. Careful planning by lenders, host country governments, consultants and trainers will be necessary to realize this potential for building and strengthening indigenous capabilities to wisely exploit and sustain the renewable natural resource base. The following experts from developing countries contributed substantially to this report: W. D. Ailapperuma (Sri Lanka), Herman Haeruman (Indonesia), Noki Makap (Papua New Guinea), Somvonk Poshyananda (Thailand), Suh Junghyun (Korea) and Veronica Villavicencio (Philippines). Richard A. Carpenter M.A., Organic Chemistry, University of Missouri, 1949. Came to EAPI from the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council where he was executive director of the Commission on Natural Resources. Prior to establishing that office in 1972, was chief of the Environmental Policy Division of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Has contributed to the passage and implementation of legislation including the National Environmental Policy Act and has been responsible for a variety of studies interpreting and transferring technical information for decision-making. Began his career as a chemist and has obtained patents in the field. John A. Dixon Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University, 1977. B.A., Economics and Oriental Languages (Chinese), University of California at Berkeley, 1968. Previously worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia as agriculture programme economist where his main research interests were food policy analysis and natural resource management. At EAPI he is involved with environmental applications of benefit-cost analysis as well as economic aspects of the coal-fuel cycle.     

Applying the baldrige quality criteria to environmental performance: Lessons from leading organizations

Over the last thirty years, we have seen a dramatic shift in values that people and corporations place on environmental responsibility. People have become more aware of how the earth's limited resources are being rapidly depleted. High levels of consumption have resulted in increasing manufacturing and transportation needs which in turn lead to greater energy use, higher usage of hazardous and toxic substances, and decreased air and water quality. Leadership for environmental protection has shifted from vocal environmental advocacy groups to corporate executives. Driven by shifting customer requirements, competitive pressures, and resource conservation technologies, environmental issues are becoming embedded in the fundamental business strategies. In this article we will describe the application of the Malcolm Baldrige quality award criteria to environmental management and show how the focus on quality principles and tools can improve profitability. Examples from the Xerox Corporation and other companies will be provided to illustrate the breadth of environmental improvement initiatives that are being implemented.     

Desire to Bargain and Negotiation Success: Lessons About the Need to Negotiate from Six Hydropower Disputes

/ We investigated the notion that successful negotiations require that all parties to the dispute must have a desire to bargain. This desire is most likely to be present when the dispute exhibits ripeness and each party believes a bargained solution is the most cost-effective way to resolve differences. Structured interviews of participants in six Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hydropower licensing consultations were conducted to determine the level of need to negotiate for each party. The findings indicate that a need to negotiate is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for success. Several factors were associated with a need to negotiate: a weak BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement); a salient issue; participants' sense of efficacy; a sense of inevitability; professional roles encouraging negotiation; and disputes about facts as opposed to disputes about values. Participants' need to negotiate fluctuated throughout the process and intensified when questions were ripe: i.e., critical issues were debated or the regulatory process required action.KEY WORDS: Alternative dispute resolution; Federal licenses; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Instream flow; Environmental planning     

构建生态环境技术服务体系的基本定位与主要对策

四个方面的情况表明,我国必须高度重视生态环境技术服务体系建设问题:一是随着污染防治攻坚战在向纵深推进过程中,地方政府"不会管"、企业"不会治"的问题比较普遍,且日益突出;二是目前各级生态环境部门,特别是市、县两级生态环境技术支持力量薄弱、专业化能力不足,难以支撑当地政府和企业治理环境污染的技术需求;三是目前的生态环境技术服务市场尚满足不了实际需求;四是无论是从结构还是从作用看,生态环境技术服务体系已成为生态环境治理体系和治理能力的短板。因此,构建生态环境技术服务体系是推进生态环境治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要内容,其作用是,在要求环境责任主体做什么的同时,帮助和指导他们怎么做,解决"不会管"和"不会治"的问题。现阶段,政府推动构建生态环境技术服务体系的重点任务:一是明确职能,系统谋划,做好顶层设计;二是强化相关能力建设;三是建立和完善生态环境标准和重大规划与行动计划的配套技术方案制度;四是培育、壮大和规范生态环境技术服务市场;五是以生态环境科技成果转化为抓手,牵引技术服务体系建设。     

Investment in water infrastructure: Findings from an economic analysis of a national programme

Mixed findings emerge from this ex post Cost-Benefit Analysis of a major water investment programme in Ireland. Water supply and conservation investments, where most benefits were internal, generally proved worthwhile. Wastewater investments could not be analysed fully due to lack of environmental data. Here the authors estimated the level of ‘willingness-to-pay’ that would have been required to ‘justify’ the investments. In some cases the required level seemed implausibly high, raising questions as to prioritisation of projects. The authors recommend a more systematic approach to recording environmental benefits in future investment programmes, the next likely wave being in new EU member states seeking to meet environmental standards. The EU, as likely co-funder of these investments, should require systematic recording of environmental benefits.     

Science and the Consequences of Mistruct: Lessons from Recent GM Controversies

In 2001, it was announced thattransgenic DNA had introgressed intotraditional strains of maize in Mexico. Acontroversy erupted and raged throughout 2001and 2002. This episode represents an acutebreakdown in scientific discourse. Given thestakes in the genetically modified organismdebate, a breakdown in scientific discourse isalarming. The following inquiry looks into thecauses of this breakdown. Ultimately, it willbe argued that the underlying problem is thecurrent institutional structure of science,particularly in the United States. If thediagnosis is correct, then the proper course oftreatment is to pursue a program ofinstitutional reconstruction.     

The importance of context for effective public engagement: learning from the governance of waste

This paper takes a new look at the importance of context – institutional and political – in effective public engagement processes. It does so through a rare comparative opportunity to examine the effectiveness of processes of public engagement in two UK waste authorities, where the same waste company was involved as both the primary contractor for the delivery of the waste management service (including new energy-from-waste facilities) and, furthermore, the same staff delivered the public engagement. Interrogating these cases affords the opportunity to place flesh on the bones of the sometimes ‘abstract’ skeleton of context. While engagement processes support effective local governance in an era of partnerships and deliberative democracy, the paper identifies that the methods adopted cannot be played out devoid of detailed understanding and response to local context, including the strength of partnership working between the public and private sector, the degree of political support for engagement, and the extent to which a traditional institutional paternalism still dominates.     

Lessons Learned from a Decade of Sudden Oak Death in California: Evaluating Local Management

Sudden Oak Death has been impacting California’s coastal forests for more than a decade. In that time, and in the absence of a centrally organized and coordinated set of mandatory management actions for this disease in California’s wildlands and open spaces, many local communities have initiated their own management programs. We present five case studies to explore how local-level management has attempted to control this disease. From these case studies, we glean three lessons: connections count, scale matters, and building capacity is crucial. These lessons may help management, research, and education planning for future pest and disease outbreaks.     

Autonomy and the Politics of Food Choice: From Individuals to Communities

Individuals use their capacity for autonomy to express preferences regarding food choices. Food choices are fundamental, universal, and reflect a diversity of interests and cultural preferences. Traditionally, autonomy is cast in only epistemic terms, and the social and political dimension of it, where autonomy obstruction tends to arise, is omitted. This reflects problematic limits in the Cartesian notion of the individual. Because this notion ignores context and embodiment, the external and internal constraints on autonomy that extend from social location are not considered. Therefore, reconceptions of the individual and autonomy which emphasize social location and relational interdependency are needed. To combat autonomy obstruction, individuals can appeal to community and community autonomy as a social mechanism. Communities are social groups characterized by people living in places with shared goals. Recognizing their interdependency, individuals can organize as communities in order to accomplish objectives that they cannot on their own. While community autonomy is valuable unto itself, it can also enhance individual autonomy.     

Environmental Subsidiarity as a Guiding Principle for Forestry Governance: Application to Payment for Ecosystem Services and REDD+ Architecture

This article describes and proposes the “environmental subsidiarity principle” as a guiding ethical value in forestry governance. Different trends in environmental management such as local participation, decentralization or global governance have emerged in the last two decades at the global, national and local level. This article suggests that the conscious or unconscious application of subsidiarity has been the ruling principle that has allocated the level at which tasks have been assigned to different agents. Based on this hypothesis this paper describes the principle of subsidiarity and its application to environmental policies within forest governance and proposes the “environmental subsidiarity” principle as a critical conceptual tool for sustainable resource management. The paper explains as an example how “environmental subsidiarity” is the key principle that can link payment for ecosystem services (PES) with environmental public policies and applies this principle with all its political consequences to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) architecture. It concludes by showing how the adoption of “environmental subsidiarity” as a ethical principle could help to maximize benefits to all stakeholders involved in PES schemes such as REDD+.     

A Framework to Evaluate Ecological and Social Outcomes of Collaborative Management: Lessons from Implementation with a Northern Arizona Collaborative Group

As collaborative groups gain popularity as an alternative means for addressing conflict over management of public lands, the need for methods to evaluate their effectiveness in achieving ecological and social goals increases. However, frameworks that examine both effectiveness of the collaborative process and its outcomes are poorly developed or altogether lacking. This paper presents and evaluates the utility of the holistic ecosystem health indicator (HEHI), a framework that integrates multiple ecological and socioeconomic criteria to evaluate management effectiveness of collaborative processes. Through the development and application of the HEHI to a collaborative in northern Arizona, the Diablo Trust, we present the opportunities and challenges in using this framework to evaluate the ecological and social outcomes of collaborative adaptive management. Baseline results from the first application of the HEHI are presented as an illustration of its potential as a co-adaptive management tool. We discuss lessons learned from the process of selecting indicators and potential issues to their long-term implementation. Finally, we provide recommendations for applying this framework to monitoring and adaptive management in the context of collaborative management.     

Impediments and Solutions to Sustainable,Watershed-Scale Urban Stormwater Management: Lessons from Australia and the United States

In urban and suburban areas, stormwater runoff is a primary stressor on surface waters. Conventional urban stormwater drainage systems often route runoff directly to streams and rivers, thus exacerbating pollutant inputs and hydrologic disturbance, and resulting in the degradation of ecosystem structure and function. Decentralized stormwater management tools, such as low impact development (LID) or water sensitive urban design (WSUD), may offer a more sustainable solution to stormwater management if implemented at a watershed scale. These tools are designed to pond, infiltrate, and harvest water at the source, encouraging evaporation, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, and re-use of stormwater. While there are numerous demonstrations of WSUD practices, there are few examples of widespread implementation at a watershed scale with the explicit objective of protecting or restoring a receiving stream. This article identifies seven major impediments to sustainable urban stormwater management: (1) uncertainties in performance and cost, (2) insufficient engineering standards and guidelines, (3) fragmented responsibilities, (4) lack of institutional capacity, (5) lack of legislative mandate, (6) lack of funding and effective market incentives, and (7) resistance to change. By comparing experiences from Australia and the United States, two developed countries with existing conventional stormwater infrastructure and escalating stream ecosystem degradation, we highlight challenges facing sustainable urban stormwater management and offer several examples of successful, regional WSUD implementation. We conclude by identifying solutions to each of the seven impediments that, when employed separately or in combination, should encourage widespread implementation of WSUD with watershed-based goals to protect human health and safety, and stream ecosystems.     

Multilevel assessment of a large-scale programme for poverty alleviation and wetland conservation: lessons from South Africa

The implementation of large-scale programmes for environment and development presents two main challenges: the tensions between both goals and the disconnect across policy levels. To contribute to overcoming these challenges, we assess a national multi-partnership programme for poverty alleviation and wetland restoration in South Africa: Working for Wetlands. We analyse this innovative polycentric programme at the macro and micro levels. At the national level, we assess the policy development and implementation model. At the local level, we analyse its impact on livelihoods and on opinions about development and the environment at a specific location. We use data from in-depth interviews across scales, household surveys (n = 47) and focus group discussions. The strengths of this programme can inform more effective design of further large-scale environment and development policies. However, critical issues originated at the national scale are likely to hinder the permanence of improvements at the micro level.     

Social Approval of the Community Assessment Model for Odor Dispersal: Results from a Citizen Survey

Odors emitted from US Midwest hog production facilities present farmers, residents, and state regulatory agencies with a set of complex challenges. To predict odor exposure from multiple swine production sources simultaneously, and to determine siting recommendations for proposed new or enlarged hog facilities, researchers at Iowa State University designed the community assessment model for odor dispersion (CAM). A three-county citizen survey conducted in Iowa examined the level of hypothetical social acceptance of the modeling process, and level of trust in CAM results. While 69 % of respondents approved of modeling as a way to determine the most socially appropriate location for production sites, only 35 % would trust the results if potential odor exposure from a new facility were proposed to be built near their home. We analyzed approval of the CAM model, and level of trust, across a number of demographic, attitudinal, and belief factors regarding environmental quality and the hog industry. Overall, trust in CAM was uneven and varied across respondents. Those residents who would not trust CAM tended to be more concerned with environmental quality and less inclined to believe that the hog industry is critically important economically. Those who would not trust CAM results also had significantly more direct experience with odors. Findings point to predominantly positive, yet equivocal acceptance of CAM results among the citizenry, which is not unexpected given conflict typical of siting decisions in industry and waste disposal arenas. Recommendations are offered regarding the interaction of trust, beliefs and attitudes and the utility of CAM.     

The firm,environmental management and environmental measures: Lessons from a survey of European manufacturing firms

This paper reports on the results of a survey of environmental management and technical measures amongst almost 2000 European firms. Logit analysis is undertaken to determine the effects of firm characteristics, commercial conditions, perceived environmental impacts, expected benefits and stakeholder pressures on the probability of having an environmental management system in place. Subsequently, determinants of the likelihood of undertaking environmental actions in five environmental areas are estimated. There is a positive effect of environmental management on the likelihood of undertaking technical measures to reduce environmental impacts in some (but not all) areas, as well as a positive role for integrated environmental management strategies.     

Challenges to the implementation of a sustainable development certification programme for the minerals and metals industry

Private, voluntary eco-labelling and certification programmes are being developed for a number of industries to promote and verify higher environmental, economic and social standards. In some cases, these initiatives have developed regardless of whether there is initial, broad support within industry. This article seeks to identify some of the challenges inherent in the implementation of a sustainable development certification programme for the minerals and metals industry. The article looks for guidance from initiatives that are drawn for the most part from other resource industries, most notably forestry. While the article takes a Canadian perspective, many of the challenges raised in the article are also applicable internationally. The article concludes that stakeholders can learn from other resource industries if a decision is made to develop a certification programme for the minerals and metals industry. Crucial to the long-term success of such a programme will be the establishment of a true partnership among stakeholders throughout the initiative's development. Crown Copyright.     

控制环境与健康风险:美国环境标准制度功能借鉴

传统观念下,环境与健康分属两个不同领域,美国作为最早遭遇环境与健康问题的国家,经过多年努力,形成了建立以保障公共健康为核心的环境标准体系和环境与健康风险评估框架,实现了对环境与健康风险的有效控制。美国对环境污染物的界定主要取决于其对公共健康的影响,将污染物分为普遍及对公共健康危害较大的污染物、一些污染范围较小或对公共健康危害较小的污染物两类,且采取不同的标准制定方法。在标准制定方面,主要是将有关科学共识转化为可执行的环境标准。为了避免环境标准的不确定性带来的不利影响,建立了包括科学论证、公开透明、周期性审查等较为严格的环境标准制定程序。美国赋予环境标准制度以控制环境与健康风险的功能,并通过建立以保障公共健康为核心的环境标准体系,实现对环境与健康风险有效控制的执法路径,对解决中国目前存在的环境标准价值缺失、体系割裂、内容缺失等问题,实现环境标准的功能再造具有较强的借鉴意义。