Opening Up for Participation in Agro-Biodiversity Conservation: The Expert-Lay Interplay in a Brazilian Social Movement

In science and environmental studies, there is a general concern for the democratization of the expert-lay interplay. However, the democratization of expertise does not necessarily lead to more sustainable decisions. If citizens do not take the sustainable choice, what should experts and decision makers do? Should the expert-lay interplay be dissolved? In thinking about how to shape the expert-lay interplay in a better way in agro-biodiversity conservation, I take the case of the MST (Movimento Sem Terra/Landless People’s Movement), possibly the largest rural movement in Latin America. The MST is in a process of turning towards environmentalism. It has adopted agroecology, a democratically oriented knowledge field. However, not all of the farmers were willing to adopt new environmentalist ideas and practices. Through ethnographic research, I analyze how expertise was recognized and redistributed within the MST, attending particularly to the role of MST coordinators and technicians. I explore how participation was framed and put into action. The adoption of agroecology brought to the MST a new and more inclusive map of expertise, but it also influenced new social distinctions within the communities. In part, farmers’ knowledge was labeled as ignorance. This may close down possibilities for dialogue as well as for sustainability. The paper suggests that experts’ power for discriminating among lay knowledges should come together with a responsibility for opening spaces for dialogue and action. One way of doing so could be by adding “interactional reflexivity” to experts’ expertise.     

Science-practice interactions linked to climate adaptation in two contexts: municipal planning and forestry in Sweden

This paper examines the science-practice interface in the process of adapting to climate change in society. This paper analyses science-based stakeholder dialogues with climate scientists, municipal officers and private individual forest owners in Sweden, and examines how local experts both share scientific knowledge and experience and integrate it into their work strategies and practices. The results demonstrate how local experts jointly conceptualise climate adaptation, how scientific knowledge is domesticated among local experts in dialogue with scientific experts, the emergence of anchoring devices, and the boundary-spanning functions that are at work in the respective sectors.     

Whose voices count in biodiversity conservation? Ecological democracy in biodiversity offsetting,REDD+, and rewilding

ABSTRACT

Ecological democracy seeks environmentally sustainable ends through broad, active democratic participation. What happens when laws fostering participation in environmental decision-making and biodiversity preservation lead to differing results? What is best for biodiversity may not be what for local citizens believe is best. I examine conflicts and congruencies in the context of Biodiversity Offsetting, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), and the Rewilding movement. I ask questions that are legal (Who has what legal rights to speak for or against programs that enhance biodiversity?), epistemological (Whose expertise and knowledge matters when scientists and non-scientists don't agree?), axiological (Are some values objectively better, and why?), and normative (Whose opinions about biodiversity should count?). Many people have the right to participate in an ecological democracy: But when protecting biodiversity, who does and should have the right to be heard? I problematize the role that ‘local’ actors play in decision-making and describe the variegated role that experts – particularly biologists – play in ecological democracy when biodiversity preservation matters. To determine whose values and voices should be prioritized, I describe ‘deep equity,’ an axiological and normative groundwork for determining when biodiversity-promoting policies may be preferable even if affected citizens don't agree.     

Discounted knowledges: farmers» and residents» understandings of nature conservation goals and policies

Local Biodiversity Action Plans are the preferred policy mechanism for setting and delivering local biodiversity targets in the UK. This paper reviews the kind of knowledge conservation scientists envisage being used to identify and set local targets, and explores the means of incorporating local knowledge into this process. We use a case study of a Wildlife Enhancement Scheme (WES) on the Pevensey Levels, East Sussex, to reveal the understandings that local farmers and residents have of the nature conservation goals and practices associated with the scheme. Drawing on the findings of in-depth discussion groups, we show how farmers challenge both the monopoly of knowledge conservationists profess about nature, and the enlistment of farmers on the scheme as «technicians», motivated solely by financial rewards, rather than as knowledgeable experts who also have emotional attachments and ethical values for nature. Local people use their knowledge of both local farmers, and the industry in general, to challenge the assumption that farmers can be trusted with delivering nature conservation goals. In the absence of a commitment by central government to agree widely-held environmental standards, and a more democratic process of making judgements about what local nature is worth conserving, local residents challenge existing processes designed to conserve nature that are driven by the knowledge and practices of official experts alone. The findings of the study suggest that a widening of the knowledge base on which the goals and practices of nature conservation are founded, and a more deliberative process of making decisions about what nature is important locally, will secure and strengthen public support for local biodiversity action plans.1998 Academic Press     

Risk perception, risk communication, and stakeholder involvement for biosolids management and research

An individual's perception of risk develops from his or her values, beliefs, and experiences. Social scientists have identified factors that affect perceptions of risk, such as whether the risk is knowable (uncertainty), voluntary (can the individual control exposure?), and equitable (how fairly is the risk distributed?). There are measurable differences in how technical experts and citizen stakeholders define and assess risk. Citizen knowledge and technical expertise are both relevant to assessing risk; thus, the 2002 National Research Council panel on biosolids recommended stakeholder involvement in biosolids risk assessments. A survey in 2002 identified some of the factors that influence an individual's perception of the risks involved in a neighbor's use of biosolids. Risk communication was developed to address the gap between experts and the public in knowledge of technical topics. Biosolids management and research may benefit from applications of current risk communication theory that emphasizes (i) two-way communications (dialogue); (ii) that the public has useful knowledge and concerns that need to be acknowledged; and (iii) that what may matter most is the credibility of the purveyor of information and the levels of trustworthiness, fairness, and respect that he or she (or the organization) demonstrates, which can require cultural change. Initial experiences in applying the dialogue and cultural change stages of risk communication theory--as well as consensus-building and joint fact-finding--to biosolids research suggest that future research outcomes can be made more useful to decision-makers and more credible to the broader public. Sharing control of the research process with diverse stakeholders can make research more focused, relevant, and widely understood.     

A FRAMEWORK OF ORDERED CLIMATE EFFECTS ON WATER RESOURCES: A COMPREHENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY1

ABSTRACT: An examination of the metadata for almost 900 bibliographic references on the effects of climate change and variability on U.S. water resources reveals strengths and weaknesses in our current knowledge. Considerable progress has been made in the modeling of climate change effects on first-order systems such as regional hydrology, but significant work remains to be done in understanding subsequent effects on the second-, third-, and fourth-order economic and social systems (e.g., agriculture, trade balance, and national economic development) that water affects. In order to remedy a recently-revealed lack of understanding about climate change on the part of the public, climate and water scientists should collaborate with social scientists in illuminating the effects of climate change and variability on the systems that affect how and where most people live.     

Participatory Evaluation of Monitoring and Modeling of Sustainable Land Management Technologies in Areas Prone to Land Degradation

Examples of sustainable land management (SLM) exist throughout the world. In many cases, SLM has largely evolved through local traditional practices and incremental experimentation rather than being adopted on the basis of scientific evidence. This means that SLM technologies are often only adopted across small areas. The DESIRE (DESertIfication mitigation and REmediation of degraded land) project combined local traditional knowledge on SLM with empirical evaluation of SLM technologies. The purpose of this was to evaluate and select options for dissemination in 16 sites across 12 countries. It involved (i) an initial workshop to evaluate stakeholder priorities (reported elsewhere), (ii) field trials/empirical modeling, and then, (iii) further stakeholder evaluation workshops. This paper focuses on workshops in which stakeholders evaluated the performance of SLM technologies based on the scientific monitoring and modeling results from 15 study sites. It analyses workshop outcomes to evaluate how scientific results affected stakeholders’ perceptions of local SLM technologies. It also assessed the potential of this participatory approach in facilitating wider acceptance and implementation of SLM. In several sites, stakeholder preferences for SLM technologies changed as a consequence of empirical measurements and modeling assessments of each technology. Two workshop examples are presented in depth to: (a) explore the scientific results that triggered stakeholders to change their views; and (b) discuss stakeholders’ suggestions on how the adoption of SLM technologies could be up-scaled. The overall multi-stakeholder participatory approach taken is then evaluated. It is concluded that to facilitate broad-scale adoption of SLM technologies, de-contextualized, scientific generalisations must be given local context; scientific findings must be viewed alongside traditional beliefs and both scrutinized with equal rigor; and the knowledge of all kinds of experts must be recognised and considered in decision-making about SLM, whether it has been formally codified or not. The approach presented in this paper provided this opportunity and received positive feedback from stakeholders.     

Whom to Trust? Public Concerns, Late Modern Risks, and Expert Trustworthiness

This article discusses the conditions under which the use of expert knowledge may provide an adequate response to public concerns about high-tech, late modern risks. Scientific risk estimation has more than once led to expert controversies. When these controversies occur, the public at large – as a media audience – faces a paradoxical situation: on the one hand it must rely on the expertise of scientists as represented in the mass media, but on the other it is confused by competing expert claims in the absence of any clear-cut standard to judge these claims. The question then arises, what expertise can the public trust? I argue that expert controversies cannot be settled by appealing to neutral, impartial expertise, because each use of expert knowledge in applied contexts is inextricably bound up with normative and evaluative assumptions. This value-laden nature of expert contributions, however, does not necessarily force us to adopt a relativist conception of expert knowledge. Nor does it imply active involvement of ordinary citizens in scientific risk estimation – as some authors seem to suggest. The value-laden, or partisan, nature of expert statements rather requires an unbiased process of expert dispute in which experts and counter-experts can participate. Moreover, instead of being a reason for discrediting expert contributions, experts' commitment may enhance public trustworthiness because it enlarges the scope of perspectives taken into account, to include public concerns. Experts who share the same worries as (some of) the public could be expected to voice these worries at the level of expert dispute. Thus, a broadly shaped expert dispute, that is accessible to both proponents and opponents, is a prerequisite for public trust.     

Environmental quality and sustainability in the province of Reggio Emilia (Italy): using multi-criteria analysis to assess and compare municipal performance.

Sustainability has become an increasingly significant issue, although practical implementation remains difficult. In Italy, promoting sustainability is particularly problematic at the provincial and municipal level, where the lack of resources and expertise, and the effects of uncoordinated policies make it difficult to achieve minimum requirements to make sustainable policies operational. One essential requirement is knowledge of baseline environmental conditions in each municipality. In the province of Reggio Emilia (Northern Italy) Legambiente, an environmental association, launched an initiative called 'Ecopaese' aimed at gathering data on environmental conditions and stimulating local administrations to implement sustainable policies. To this end, the state of the environment in the 45 municipalities within the province has been monitored using 25 indicators. Their values have been used to rank the municipalities by multiple criteria analysis (MCA). The results of this comparative approach provide information about the level of sustainability attained in the province as a whole as well as in the single municipalities. It is hoped that it will provide the basis for direct action plans at the provincial level by identifying areas for remedial action, as recommended by Agenda 21, the declaration adopted by many countries attending the Rio Summit in 1992.     

Exploring the lay/expert divide: the attribution of responsibilities for coal ash pollution in Tuzla,Bosnia and Herzegovina

Invoking expert knowledge is a common strategy in attempts to settle environmental disputes. However, the validity of expertise is contingent upon the context in which an actor is recognised as an expert. In complex environmental conflicts the distinction between lay and expert knowledge is not always fixed a priori. However, as conflicts unfold, intervening parties tend to present their cases in ways that reinforce this distinction. This is apparent in the attribution of environmental responsibilities. This paper presents an empirical case of an environmental conflict related to land contamination due to coal ash disposal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis revealed two polar positions in the conflict: the first one, mainly held by scientists and industry representatives, invoked expert knowledge and presented a distributed approach to the attribution of responsibilities; the second one, mainly held by local residents and municipal officials, presented an experiential understanding of pollution, as lay knowledge, and attributed direct responsibilities to the local energy industry. The paper concludes that the persistence of the distinction between expert and lay knowledge is a manifestation of the social structures that underlie the conflict.     

Desalinated versus recycled water: public perceptions and profiles of the accepters

Many countries' water resources are limited in both quantity and quality. While engineering solutions can now safely produce recycled and desalinated water from non-potable sources at a relatively low cost, the general public is sceptical about adopting these alternative water sources. Social scientists, policy makers and technical experts need to better understand what is causing this lack of acceptance by the general population and how acceptance levels for recycled and desalinated water can be increased. This study is the first to conduct a comparative analysis of knowledge, perceptions, and acceptability, and determine segments of residents who are more open-minded than the general population toward the use of recycled and desalinated water. The Australian population once perceived desalinated water as environmentally unfriendly, and recycled water as a public health hazard. The general level of knowledge about these two concepts as potential water sources has historically been low. After nearly five years of serious drought, accompanied by severe water restrictions across most of the country, and subsequent media attention on solutions to water scarcity, Australians now show more acceptance of desalinated water for close-to-body uses, and less resistance to recycled water for garden watering and cleaning uses. The types of people likely to be strong accepters of the two alternative water sources are distinctly different groups, and can be reached through different media mixes. This finding has significant implications for policy makers and water practitioners.     

The sustainable intensification of agriculture

Agricultural development is currently facing unprecedented challenges. With 800 million people already having insufficient access to food, population growth estimates project an even bleaker situation in the future. The article summarizes the major schools of thought regarding how to face the dilemma, and advocates sustainable intensification of agriculture, relying on integrated use of a wide range of technologies to manage pests, nutrients, soil and water. Local knowledge and adaptive methods are stressed rather than comprehensive packages of externally-supplied technologies. The article shows how regenerative, low-input agriculture, founded on full farmer participation in all stages of development and extension, can be highly productive. It is stressed that policy must not prescribe specific, concretely defined technologies or practices, as this would restrict future farmer options. Farmers and communities should be allowed and encouraged to adapt to changing conditions; what needs to be sustainable are local processes of innovation and adaptation.
The article highlights environmental and economic benefits resulting from sustainable intensification practices, for farmers as well as communities and nations with examples are taken from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Despite the increasing success of sustainable agriculture, it is clear that the challenge remains to 'scale up' the process from small 'islands of success' to fundamental reform of both policies and policy formulation processes.     

The importance of the will to improve: how ‘sustainability’ sidelined local livelihoods in a carbon-forestry investment in Uganda

This paper describes a ‘win–win’ discourse on local sustainable development and global climate change mitigation regarding Kachung, a Swedish–Norwegian climate forestry investment in Uganda certified under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In many ways, this investment is a typical example of how private interests and capital accumulation are prioritised over local concerns in natural resource management under neoliberalism. This study, however, indicated that investors had genuine intentions of creating mutual benefits for the global environment and local people. Drawing on Li (2007), we show that this ‘will to improve’ was nevertheless constructed in ways that resulted in prioritisation of global climate change mitigation over local context-specific concerns.

We identify three core factors making the win–win discourse around Kachung plantation especially resilient: (i) the perceived urgency of climate change mitigation, (ii) the apolitical framing of ‘sustainability’ as an environmental issue that can be fixed through external technical interventions and (iii) the devaluation of local and context-specific knowledge. We end by suggesting that research on the neoliberalisation of nature focus more on analysing the rationales behind specific interventions. This would leave us better equipped to suggest how such interventions should be modified to produce true wins for local contexts.     

Mapping socio-economic scenarios of land cover change: a GIS method to enable ecosystem service modelling

We present a GIS method to interpret qualitatively expressed socio-economic scenarios in quantitative map-based terms. (i) We built scenarios using local stakeholders and experts to define how major land cover classes may change under different sets of drivers; (ii) we formalized these as spatially explicit rules, for example agriculture can only occur on certain soil types; (iii) we created a future land cover map which can then be used to model ecosystem services. We illustrate this for carbon storage in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania using two scenarios: the first based on sustainable development, the second based on 'business as usual' with continued forest-woodland degradation and poor protection of existing forest reserves. Between 2000 and 2025 4% of carbon stocks were lost under the first scenario compared to a loss of 41% of carbon stocks under the second scenario. Quantifying the impacts of differing future scenarios using the method we document here will be important if payments for ecosystem services are to be used to change policy in order to maintain critical ecosystem services.     

Facing the Problem of Uncertainty

In a certain sense, uncertainty andignorance have been recognized in science andphilosophy from the time of the Greeks.However, the mathematical sciences have beendominated by the pursuit of certainty.Therefore, experiments under simplified andidealized conditions have been regarded as themost reliable source of knowledge. Normally,uncertainty could be ignored or controlled byapplying probability theory and statistics.Today, however, the situation is different.Uncertainty and ignorance have moved intofocus. In particular, the global character ofsome environmental problems has shown that theproblems cannot be disregarded. Therefore,scientists and technologists have in many wayscome into a new situation. The Chernobylaccident is a dramatic example, however,problems such as a possible greenhouse effect,a possible reduction of the ozone layer, and soon are all of the same type. These encompasstotally different problems than scientists andtechnologists are traditionally trained to dealwith. In these cases, the standard use ofstatistics has to change, the burden of proofshould be reversed, one should draw ondifferent kinds of expertise, and, in general,science should be ``democratized.'     

Still some way to go: institutionalisation of sustainability in German local governments

There is a widespread consensus among sustainability experts about the need for ambitious transformative practices in order for a sustainable development to progress. Agenda 21 emphasised the need for multilevel and multi-actor governance and explicitly focused on the local level. The conceptual and analytical preference of governance beyond government has directed attention towards the interaction between state and non-state actors. The present article focuses on the role of (local) state institutions in sustainability governance. We argue that an effective implementation of sustainability in government institutions is a precondition for a successful multi-stakeholder governance of a sustainable development. The guiding question of this article is: How has sustainability been institutionalised in local governments in Germany in the last 20 years after Agenda 21 was adopted? Based on a conceptual framework, we are presenting the empirical results of a survey of 371 German cities and municipalities in this article, which primarily aims at providing empirical evidence on to what extent sustainability has been institutionalised in German local governments. The article ends with discussing the potential reasons for the institutionalisation deficit observed and gives an outlook on the potential for developing a sustainability state, that is, a state dedicated to institutionalising sustainability.     

Sustainable Engineering Science for Resolving Wicked Problems

Because wicked problems are beyond the scope of normal, industrial-age engineering science, sustainability problems will require reform of current engineering science and technology practices. We assert that, while pluralism concerning use of the term sustainability is likely to persist, universities should continue to cultivate research and education programs specifically devoted to sustainable engineering science, an enterprise that is formally demarcated from business-as-usual and systems optimization approaches. Advancing sustainable engineering science requires a shift in orientation away from reductionism and intellectual specialization towards integrative approaches to science, education, and technology that: (1) draw upon an ethical awareness that extends beyond the usual bounds of professional ethics or responsible conduct of research to include macroethics, (2) adopt anticipatory and adaptive approaches to unintended consequences resulting from technological innovation that result in more resilient systems, and (3) cultivate interactional expertise to facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange. Unfortunately, existing education and research training programs are ill-equipped to prepare scientists and engineers to operate effectively in a wicked problems milieu. Therefore, it is essential to create new programs of graduate education that will train scientists and engineers to become sustainable engineering science experts equipped to recognize and grapple with the macro-ethical, adaptive, and cross-disciplinary challenges embedded in their technical research and development programs.     

The Governance of sustainable development in Wales

A new institutional architecture is emerging in Wales to govern sustainable development. The National Assembly for Wales (hereafter referred to as the 'Welsh Assembly')1 has a statutory duty to promote sustainable development in the exercise of all its functions; its response has been to design a set of political and organizational arrangements to manage this policy area, and to prepare a Scheme that sets out how it proposes to discharge this duty. Devolved government in Wales has also been the catalyst for the emergence of collaborative relationships and partnerships between different sectors and interests. The Welsh Assembly and the Welsh Local Government Association have published a Compact jointly committing them to promote sustainable development; national non-governmental organizations such as Oxfam and the World Wide Fund for Nature have set up Welsh agencies; local government sustainable development coordinators have formed a national network; a national Sustainable Development Forum has been created; and the Welsh Assembly has taken the lead in establishing a European network of countries interested in sharing best practice on sustainable development. A new Wales-specific structure and system is materializing and the test now is how far this will be effective in delivering sustainable development policies and solutions at local and national levels. This paper examines the challenges in managing sustainable development, and the potential for success of this new governance system, drawing on recent research undertaken by the author on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The examination is set in the context of different theories of governance, and sustainable development is conceptualized as a 'wicked issue'—one that cannot be resolved by organizations and agencies acting autonomously, but rather needs concerted focus and action across all sectors.     

Determining the native/non-native status of newly discovered terrestrial and freshwater species in Antarctica - current knowledge, methodology and management action

Continental Antarctic terrestrial and freshwater environments currently have few established non-native species compared to the sub-Antarctic islands and other terrestrial ecosystems on Earth. This is due to a unique combination of factors including Antarctica's remoteness, harsh climate, physical geography and brief history of human activity. However, recent increases in national operator and tourism activities increase the risk of non-native propagules reaching Antarctica, while climate change may make successful establishment more likely. The frequency and probability of human-assisted transfer mechanisms appear to far outweigh those of natural propagule introductions by wind, water, birds and marine mammals. A dilemma for scientists and environmental managers, which is exacerbated by a poor baseline knowledge of Antarctic biodiversity, is how to determine the native/non-native status of a newly discovered species which could be (a) a previously undiscovered long-term native species, (b) a recent natural colonist or (c) a human-mediated introduction. A correct diagnosis is crucial as the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty dictates dramatically different management responses depending on native/non-native status: native species and recent natural colonists should be protected and conserved, while non-native introductions should be eradicated or controlled. We review current knowledge on how available evidence should be used to differentiate between native and non-native species, and discuss and recommend issues that should be considered by scientists and managers upon discovery of a species apparently new to the Antarctic region.     

Including Public Perspectives in Industrial Biotechnology and the Biobased Economy

Industrial (“white”) biotechnology promises to contribute to a more sustainable future. Compared to current production processes, cases have been identified where industrial biotechnology can decrease the amount of energy and raw materials used to make products and also reduce the amount of emissions and waste produced during production. However, switching from products based on chemical production processes and fossil fuels towards “biobased” products is at present not necessarily economically viable. This is especially true for bulk products, for example ethanol production from biomass. Therefore, scientists are also turning to genetic modification as a means to develop organisms that can produce at lower costs. These include not only micro-organisms, but also organisms used in agriculture for food and feed.The use of genetic modification for “deliberate release” purposes, in particular, has met great opposition in Europe. Many industrial biotechnology applications may, due to their scale, entail deliberate releases of GM organisms. Thus, the biobased economy brings back a familiar question; is it ethically justifiable, and acceptable to citizens, to expose the environment and society to the risks associated with GM, in order to protect that same environment and to sustain our affluent way of life? For a successful innovation towards a biobased economy, its proponents, especially producers, need to take into account (take responsibility for) such issues when developing new products and processes. These issues, and how scientists can interact with citizens about them in a timely way, are further explored in projects at Delft University and Leiden University, also in collaboration with Utrecht University.