§Summary
In this chapter I briefly summarize lessons learned from the three case studies and then use the Latvian case study as a means to propose an organic approach for incorporating the public in environmental policy processes. This method using several forums concurrently to achieve greater understanding while simultaneously informing and learning from key stakeholders and the public in a dynamic, exciting, interactive process.
§Introduction
Each of the three societies examined in this paper is attempting in its own way to cope with the opportunity to create a sustainable economy and prevent ecological disaster while meeting the increasing demands of their populations for material goods in the context of their evolved culture. There is a clear need for broad public education to understand the scientific basis for ecological concerns.
There is also a clear need for public forums where individuals as well as representatives of groups, organizations and public interests can each present their views and negotiate acceptable solutions. Saving the environment - a general good -- often initially appears to involve increasing benefits to a small number of societal members while decreasing benefits to the majority. If a family farm is seized to protect a wetland, if alternatives are not provided, the individual's welfare can be affected dramatically eliminating the family’s source of livelihood.
The concept of the "tragedy of the commons" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons for a brief elaboration) underlies the extremely difficult issues in determining balanced and effective environmental policy. How to cope with the "tragedy of the commons" problem is a key issue for any policy decision model aiming to incorporate the public as well as other stakeholders. The participants in the decision process need the scientific education to understand the nature of the threat to the “commons” so that they can take informed actions to prevent the threat.
One of the problems with these decisions is that the threat is often long term. If a community surrounding a lake is faced with having a health hazard with undrinkable water, such a community can quickly make the decision to install a sewer system and septic tanks to prevent raw sewage from entering the lake. The decision process becomes much more difficult if the "commons" that is endangered is under a gradual threat that is not obvious other than through scientific research where the impact of individuals is nominal. Though an ecologically minded person with awareness of long term impacts might decide to ride a bycicle to work and question why others don’t do this as well with the perception that they are helping to preserve the ecology of their neighborhood, for most people it’s difficult to maintain awareness of long term ecological issues. Perhaps this is largely an issue of education, as greater awareness provides a means for one to have a more direct connection and thus perception of subtle changes and their influence on ones life. For example, without education and interest in such matters one might perceive that the main perceived negative effect of driving a Hummer to work instead of a bycicle to be might be primarily a noise issue without consideration for the likelihood that if everyone drove a Diesel-powered Hummer to work the effect would be measurable as can be seen from cities such as Mexico City that are choking in pollution. While the pollution of Mexico City is as obvious as the filth of a lake choked by raw sewage from adjoining property many environmental problems are far more subtle requiring scientific knowledge to describe their impact. My focus is on these more subtle science-based environmental issues.
Managing the trade-offs and negotiations between individuals and groups is a messy process that has historically not been particularly transparent. As demonstrated earlier in this paper, the fact that scientific information and expert judgment may be involved does not automatically make the process more logical or eliminate cognitive decision biases. Scientific information, especially if taken in a reductionist sense without accounting for different variables from different fields, can and often has been used to advance irrational purposes.
The dilemma facing society is how to construct fair and transparent processes to enable a rational discussion of ecological threats and opportunities for sustainable development that includes win-lose situations and maximize win-win situations by creating sustainable alternatives for formerly destructive practices. While it may be possible in a healthy society to create more win-win opportunities than in a poorly functioning society the win-lose situations will still arise where the welfare of individuals is diminished for the greater good of the society. In real-world societies the deck is stacked to benefit the ruling elite, which often does not represent an effective response to an environmental threat. Making oil billionaires richer is almost built-in to the functioning of industrial economies but this also increases the threat of global warming.
Societies, such as the Soviet Union, had no transparent process to facilitate the negotiations among individuals and groups and the societies in transition from these systems have unique challenges. In former Soviet societies, problems were often solved through blat (bribes). Clearly blat and influence were ineffective in addressing environmental concerns even with the repressive force of a totalitarian state.
This paper represents a search for a dynamic process that can be effective in resolving the differences among individuals and groups as they are impacted by environmental issues.
History is littered with failures to solve the problem of environmental threats. Fiji, Belize and Latvia, all former colonies of empires, each face environmental threats but are in a unique position in having areas of relatively pristine environment that are potentially under serious threat by ineffective policy.
It is clear that participation of an educated public is key to an effective societal response to ecological issues. A scientific elite cannot dictate effective environmental policy due to the need to solve the problem of trade-offs among the competing interests of individuals and groups and because they often are not as in tune with the various issues directly relating to their environment.
I next present a model for transparent representative decision making and then explore unique methods to facilitate the incorporation of the public within this model.
§A Potential Model Incorporating All Relevant Factors
I see the ideal situation as something similar to the diagram below. Though the parties involved would change in any situation, I see the viewpoints of the public, economists, ecologists, impacted business members, NGOs, government, and anthropologists or other locals involved in studying their culture working with mutually elected group facilitators who are aware of cognitive biases uncovered by the psychology of decision making to achieve the most transparent and informed process possible to create sustainable environmental policy.
Figure 118: Decision Diagram for Integrative Approaches to Environmentally and Economically Sustainable Environmental Management
In this model, the key stakeholders are represented by different sections of the leaf and in the center we have the facilitators. The gears in the diagram represent this process and the triangle represents the policy, which represents the views of the different stakeholders in a clear though multifaceted construct. I chose to give a green color to the whole diagram despite the fact that many stakeholders are unlikely to be focused on environmental objectives. This was done because a central thesis of this paper is that environmental and economic sustainability are truly inexorably linked and that humans and the economy they create are and must be considered an intrinsic part of their environment to remain sustainable in the long-term.
I envision the facilitators depicted in the center as mutually elected by all of the representative stakeholders. These will be people that are considered unbiased by the different stakeholders and work to make the process as transparent as possible. As a result these facilitators would be trained in cognitive biases, unbiased facilitation, as well as an ability to communicate and understand on, a general level, all of the fields represented by the stakeholders. If a party were presenting information that appeared to display cognitive biases, these facilitators would work to uncover this possibility and present this. Prior to discussions, all stakeholders would be informed of the different biases and agree to the rules involved in their discussion and the credibility of the facilitators.
Next I present avenues for including the public in this process.
§Interesting Possible Avenues for Facilitating Public Participation in The Proposed Model
§Multimedia Benefit Events
One of the primary preliminary conclusions from my research in Latvia is that, while many people have a general interest in environmental issues, they don’t know how to get more involved. I would like to create a model for involving the public, from students and concerned young people to business people, to pensioners to engender heightened environmental consciousness and, when appropriate, stimulate environmental action.
In my initial Fulbright proposal, I planned to organize a workshop involving various stakeholders who impact or have a concern about the environment. I participated in numerous conferences, workshops and meetings during my stay in Latvia that addressed the environmental agenda. Most failed to accomplish the goal of creating real space for dialogue and involvement of the general public and other stakeholders. Many of the supposed opportunities for environmental action seemed to have no observable impact. These tend to be attended by people paid to be there and were often perceived as being without passion, rather boring, and unimportant.
I felt frustrated about the potential for my project to have significant impact beyond the academic value of greater empirical understanding of environmental perceptions in Latvia. In the last portion of my stay in Latvia, following more contact with the arts and music community I saw new opportunities for building a more activist environmental consciousness in Latvia that is grounded in the public’s increased evidence-based knowledge about the ecosystem. There are examples of the melding of the creative arts with environmental concern that have been effective in the US including art fairs, band concerts and other events. A strong understanding of one’s interconnection with their environment is a necessary precondition to sustainable development. Environmental conservation is even more obviously practical in small countries such as Latvia with few indigenous resources to assure the long term well being of the residents through sustainable development balanced and in harmony with the environment.
I propose bringing the environmental activists together with artists and musicians to work on achieving an interesting and exciting multidisciplinary multimedia approach to environmental education and action. In Latvia, I made connections with not only the environmental Ministry and NGO’s such as the World Wild Life Fund and the Environmental Protection Club, but people and organizations involved with video, music, and art with the end result of the event later described. Inspiring multimedia events gives a platform to facilitate exciting and compelling dialog between the public, NGOs, and politicians. I believe that the one successful event outlined is a model for others to follow.
If events can be organize that celebrate the miracle of the ecosystem and humanity’s role as both guardian and participant in the living processes of the planet then understanding will be promoted and many more people will be motivated to be involved.
This idea was already tested in the successful benefit concert that I helped organize with the Social Policy institute in front of the Riga Congress building. At this concert, many local musicians, including my own Ska band, Voiceks Voiska performed. A very diverse grouping of entertainers was included to facilitate as large and representative of participation as possible. Performers ranged from folk dancers, local elementary school choir groups, and traditional folk singers, to modern pop and hardcore punk rock bands. This worked to attract a wide audience of all ages and many subcultures. Though the audience initially primarily came to listen to music, informational stands were set up and surveys enplaced where this diverse grouping of locals could fill out their viewpoints on how to best plan new development in the center of Riga.
This provided an entertaining and informative way for the public, who often feel overworked and unenthusiastic about participation, to get involved. I think this forum could serve as a model for much more representative ways inform and learn from the public.
§Representative NGO
One possible avenue to incorporate the public would be in creation of a reprentative NGO whose members would participate in the decision making process and who who would act as representatives of public opinion. Using various sampling methods, including traditional approaches as well as presented approaches such as multimedia events, one could attract a diverse, large groupings of the public who could be surveyed at relatively low cost. These surveys could then be used by this representative NGO who would send as many constituents as were needed to adequately represent the different views found in the survey populace. If analyses of these surveys indicated that there were multiple opposing alternative public views, multiple people could be sent from the NGO whose soul focus was to act as public representatives, in effect, an unbiased public representative grouping.
§Potential of Using Non Technical Forms to Communicate with the Public, Such as The Daina Song in Latvia
Another interesting avenue that I see being used for participation is more lyrical and expressive forms of communication. I believe that the Daina form not only indicates how Latvians have traditionally viewed nature but also may be useful as part of an alternative forum for communicating modern day ecological views. Satterfield and Slovic (2004) provide fascinating examples of work in this direction in the US in their examination of narrative expression as a means to communicate environmental values. I think that work in Latvia would benefit from examining the potential to develop this as another alternative forum to communicate with segments of the populace that are more receptive to this or other alternative forms.
§Recommendations for Latvia Based on Research In my Last Case Study
Despite its remarkable success, considering its starting point as a former Soviet Republic, Latvia, my last case study, faces particular challenges as an emerging country. In Soviet times, Latvia had no national institutions and was isolated from the surrounding world behind a wall of paranoid secrecy using the non-convertible currency of a bankrupt, ideologically based empire. Now, with vibrant democratic institutions and a civil society, thousands of successful businesses, a strong, convertible currency, and accession to the European Union and NATO membership Latvia is poised for rapid economic growth. This achievement enables Latvia to leverage its geostrategic position as a natural gateway linking Russia with Western Europe through its transit trading ports and a large Russian and international business community in the region’s largest and most important city, Riga. Latvia’s gateway role and comparative success, in contrast to most other former Soviet republics, suggest that it will continue to leaven reforms further to the East with the potential to positively influence movement towards integration of Europe with Russia. Along with all of this promise comes concern for the possibility of unrestrained growth potentially leading to massive environmental devastation and ultimately loss of precious resources needed for long term economic sustainability.
As outlined throughout this paper, I see the need to have a wide representative grouping of the public involved in the decision making process. I see the information from the case study presented here as being a starting place to achieve greater public participation. To achieve a high level of understanding of the public views with the difficulty at achieving legitimate information, I believe that common approaches as well as non-standard approaches should be implemented.
§Standard Forum For Examining Perceptions and Achieving Participation
I believe that to adequately inform environmental policy it is important to examine public perception of relevant issues and to compare and contrast expert opinion with that of the public. Economic and social indicators are valid measures of success and failure, including among many others earnings per capita, unemployment, infant mortality, educational attainment, new business startups, bankruptcy, growth in per capital GDP, savings, crime statistics and other data.
However, such statistics may distort and even hide the perceptions of the public about the reforms that may be even more important than these seemingly objective measures. Governments rise and fall as do stock markets on the basis of public perceptions. To better understand public attitudes, I propose doing a broad populace survey throughout the major regions of Latvia. This would ideally provide an understanding of perceptions in both rural and urban areas and include both the native Latvian and postwar Russian speaking population. This would help uncover demographic differences to find where current policies are perceived as working and where future work should be concentrated. It seems clear, for example, that reform programs have been more effective in Riga where wealth has been concentrated, but that rural and agricultural areas are currently suffering. Surveys of perception from a broad cross section of the population may uncover deeper, less obvious impacts of the reform process both ecologically and economcally with the potential to better inform future environmental policy.
People are the designers and implementers of policy, serving both as the beneficiaries of their successes and the victims of their failures. An understanding of policy, therefore, also demands an understanding of the views of people in contrast to the views of technical experts. Furthermore, educational forums for fostering dialogue can help achieve greater understanding and realization of common goals than a public opinion survey alone.
Along with the survey, I propose several issue focused, cross-cutting workshops in which project experts, reform actors and the public would participate to provide a forum for both education and gathering information to compare and contrast other methods of research with perceptions in the populace of Latvia.
Therefore, I propose a four level methodology to informing environmental policy in Latvia.
Level I. Expert analysis of key topic areas
OUTPUT – Analytic reports.
Level II Expert interaction with other actors in reform process
Workshop(s) organized by NGOs to engage the participants in a process where expert views gained through practice and research inform and educate the other participants. Zalo Brievibu and other environmental NGOs have been very successful in organizing workshops involving a diversity of experts, organizations and opinions on issues relating to sustainable development.
OUTPUT – Crosscutting insights across reform topics.
Level III Survey of public opinions and attitudes towards policy issues
Survey of a cross-section of education, age, gender, ethnic, and occupation groups.
OUTPUT – Public attitudes towards the success or failures of current and past environmental policies
Level IV Integrative analysis
Integration of the outputs of Levels I, II and III.
OUTPUT – Integrated summary report of findings and general conclusions about environmental policy in Latvia.
Non Standard Approach To Facilitate Public Involvement
Along with the more standard approach just outlined, I believe that Latvia could benefit from other avenues for improving public participation. One idea is a multi media concert benefiting the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea has been polluted and over fished destroying the livelihoods of thousands of fisherman. This is clear and apparent to most people in Latvia. I see the possibility of a Baltic Sea Aid concert that attracts musicians from all of the countries bordering the Baltic Sea that raises awareness and funds for action before other ecological disasters are created that destroy jobs, damage health, and breed despair.
I have met many people in Latvia with important ideas that could make such an event a success through art, music and the lively discussion of things that can be done by ordinary citizens to improve their environment and the lives of people who depend on the environment. The presence of environmental activists from the region should get the attention of local politicians as well as the media. This event would serve the dual purpose of determining perceptions of past, present, and future policy initiatives of those in attendance (price of admission might could be reduced for those filling out a survey) as well as raising money for conservation efforts such as saving fishing villages, environmental education, and re-introduction of fish species.
A very important result could also be the elimination of highly dangerous chemical waste that was dumped into the Baltic by the Nazis during World War II. A good location for the event could be Jurmala, which at one time was pristine beachfront but at times is now so polluted that people can’t safely swim there.
§Summary and Conclusions
I used this paper to present three case studies that provided evidence from a diverse spectrum of fields to provide support for the need for public participation and potential methods to facilitate this. I argued in the first chapter that environmental conservation is fundamental to the survival of our own species and that furthermore to be effective this must be done from a base of connectedness with the environment. The next four chapters provided two case studies as potential areas for environmental conservation and I pointed to how the public must be involved if conservation is to be effective. Following this, I examined the literature of decision making and cultural psychology to show factors that must be considered in the inclusion of the public and to provide further theoretical support for the contention that public involvement is in fact a key ingredient to effective policy. Following this, I presented a case study in the interesting example of Latvia, an area where public participation is a particularly troubling and difficult thing to achieve due to the former soviet influence as well as specific cultural factors.
I conclude this document in this last chapter where I propose ways to facilitate public participation even difficult environments such as Latvia. I believe that participation of all key stakeholders, including the affected public is not only vital but, with creativity can be an achievable and potentially even an enjoyable undertaking.
§Literature Cited
- Satterfield, T., & Slovic, S. (2004). What's nature worth? Narrative expressions of environmental values. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
§Notes
Part “natural” and part “human altered” or machine.
Unlike traditional staple fish, the Nile Perch has an oily texture which makes it nearly inedible unless smoked (Barel et al. 1985).
For an in depth discussion of bioregionalism and life cycle thinking, the reader is referred to Birch and Diffenderfer (1995) and Duncan (1995).
In 1994 I was an exchange student for six months at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. In 1995 I studied at the Institute for Central American Development Studies (ICADS) based in Costa Rica and worked for the Belize Center for Environmental Studies (BCES) in Belize.
Alcalde is the Spanish word for Mayor.
Belizean independence was delayed for so long primarily because of the long standing threat that Guatemala would annex Belize (Grant 1976).
The potential for large scale agriculture without massive fertilization is also minimum in Belize due to nutrient poor soils (Wright et al. 1959). Belize’s agriculture potential is discussed more deeply in chapter five.
As Carrington (1968: 513-517) shows, nearly identical patterns of imposed tax burdens to create virtual slavery were emplaced throughout the world by the British Empire. Notable examples include Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Mauritius.
As with imposed tax burdens to create dependency, the practice of using imported labor particularly from India and other areas of Asia has been widespread and resulted in similar cultural change. Much of the west Indies, Tanzania, and Mauritius have all suffered from the large scale importation of different cultural groups to fulfill colonial labor interests (Smith 1971: 468-472; Carrington 1968: 513-517)
The shallow water during low tide allowed us to conduct the study by walking and thus dive gear was not necessary. To clearly observe the benthic distribution through the shallow water we used a standard dive mask.
Sites were qualitatively selected by an area mangrove expert to be representative of the general area. It was assumed that sites near river mouths would be comparable because of the common location within each river.
This subsection on threats is based on a Agardy (1996).
Hurricane impact was the primary “natural” hypothesis posed. Hypotheses regarding anthropogenic impact on the reef include: polluted effluent from the Suva area resulting in eutrophication and sediment loading and pollution from the Rewa River causing coral death and eutrophication.