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COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Citation:
Galloway, W B., G G. Pesch, W. K. Smith, P. J. Morneault, S. Lerman, AND W. W. Barchard. COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. Presented at Coastal Stewardship: Lessons Learned and the Paths Ahead, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, September 17, 2000.
Description:
Community Based Environmental Protection intends to make environmental protection spring from the needs and values of the community of interest. Real community involvement in protecting the environment requires a process in which the environmental needs of communities and ecosystems are heard and delineated in a way meaningful to both the community of interest and those government agents whose decisions impact the ecosystem. Actions must be coordinated and integrated among government agencies; private enterprises; and, most importantly, the people for whom services are being offered and provided (i.e. the stakeholders). Too frequently the translation of needs and actions between government and people is perfunctory, forgotten or ignored. We proposed a process which engages a community in a collaborative, consensus process to identify issues, create a plan, implement solutions, assess results, evaluate progress, and iterate the process as needed. Key to this process is working with decision makers to determine issues and technical support needs. We evaluated this process in various watershed partnerships in the US and Canada, and proposed six measures of success: 1. People care and can participate as equals. 2. Action is being taken. 3. Information is readily available. 4. Technical support is readily available. 5. Regulation is coordinated. 6. Common ground serves as the basis for action. We have subsequently developed a workshop for developing collaboration through a personal experience of collaborating with other members of a community of interest. In presenting our work to date, we hope to offer useful. perspectives on truly putting the "Community" in Community Based Environmental Protection.