The Practice and Potential of Ecosystem-based ManagementThe Practice and Potential of

Ecosystem-based Management

Christine Feurt, Ph.D. Coordinator, Coastal Training Program Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve Director, Center for Sustainable Communities University of New England

Recognizing Ecosystem-based Management

Ecosystem ManagementMeffe et al., 2002

1. Retain, restore and sustain ecosystem integrity

2. Make the places we live, work and play noticeably better today and in the future.

3. Based upon a collaboratively developed vision of desired future outcomes that integrates ecological, socioeconomic and institutional perspectives

4. Applied within a geographic framework defined primarily by natural ecological boundaries.

Overview of Today’s Presentations

Watershed Management, Land Use Regulations, and Headwater Stream Conservation Steve Burns

Coastal Resiliency, Science and Community Planning for Sea Level Rise and the Perfect Storm Pete Slovinsky

Community Viz and Municipal Conservation Planning Judy Colby-George

Overview of Today’s Presentations

Beginning with Habitat: Challenges and Tools for Statewide Biodiversity Conservation Bethany Adkins

A Model for Science, Stewardship and Adaptive Management in Taunton Bay

John Sowles Collaborative Learning for Stakeholder

Engagement-Social Science and Ecosystem Management Chris Feurt

Elements of Ecosystem ManagementWith a Focus on Land Use

A collaboratively developed vision of desired future outcomes

Indicators of success and a mechanism for tracking progress

Interdisciplinary science as a measure of ecosystem sustainability

Identification and engagement of stakeholders

Place – a workable geographic boundary

Collaborative Learning for Stakeholder Engagement:

Social Science and Ecosystem Management

ChallengesOvercoming barriers to: Watershed Management Plan

implementation Science application to policy/management Adoption of best management

practices

1. Retain, restore and sustain ecosystem integrity

2. Make the places we live, work and play noticeably better today and in the future.

3. Based upon a collaboratively developed vision of desired future outcomes that integrates ecological, socioeconomic and institutional perspectives

4. Applied within a geographic framework defined primarily by natural ecological boundaries.

Ecosystem Management and Land Use

Applying Social Science Tools

The Collaborative Learning BridgeA social science tool for Ecosystem Management

Collaborative Learning

StakeholderAnalysis

Wells NERR Science ProductsWater Quality DataWatershed Surveys

Watershed Management Plans

Management & Policy Land Use

Watershed ManagementApplication of BMPs

PerceptualBarriers

DisciplinaryBarriers

InstitutionalBarriers

InstitutionalAnalysis

CulturalAnalysis

Working Through Environmental ConflictThe Collaborative Learning Approach By Steven E. Daniels and Gregg B. Walker (2001)

“A framework and set of techniques intended for multiparty decision situations…

A means of designing and implementing a series of events to promote:

Creative thought, Constructive debate and the Effective implementation of

proposals that the stakeholders generate.”

Theoretical Grounding: Systems, Conflict, Adult Learning

Progress not Consensus

Knowledge of Stakeholder Values, Attitudes and Beliefs

Applied to Collaborative Learning Model

WatershedManagement

Assessment

{Training inCL Skills}

ImplementationAnd Facilitation

Evaluation

Adapted from Daniels and Walker, 2001

Design

ASSESSMENT: Wells NERR Coastal Training Program

Water isThreatened

Coastal Trainers

ProvideScience-based

Knowledge

Municipal Decisions Contribute to Threats to Water

MunicipalActions with

Outcomes forProtecting

Water

Public WorksCode Officer Planning Board

?

Research Question Linking Multiple Disciplines to EM

Strategic Tools : Theory & Practice

Stakeholder AnalysisWhat are the perspectives and values of water, its management and pollution, used by stakeholders in municipal decision-making?

Cultural Anthropology

Discourse Analysis

Ethnographic InterviewsParticipant ObservationCultural Models Theory

Grounded Theory:Constant Comparison Method

Institutional AnalysisHow can knowledge of the perspectives and values of stakeholders be used to improve ecosystem management?

Action Research

Instructional Systems Design

Environmental Communication

Logic Model/ Program PlanningADDIE Process

Collaborative LearningConflict TheoryAdult Learning TheorySystems Theory(+ Diffusion of Innovations) (+ Community Based Social Marketing)

Understanding Stakeholder Perspectives and Values

Why is water important?

What are threats to water?

What can be done to protect water?

Nature Produces Water, the

Source of Life

Stakeholder Values

Water is a Resourceto Use and

Manage

Perceptions of Threats to Water’s Value

Water isThreatened

ChemicalLawn Chemicals, Fertilizer, Petroleum/Car byproducts, Nutrients, N and Ph, Ammonia & Chlorine from sewage treatment plant (STP), Pesticides, Mercury, Atmospheric pollutants, Asphalt MTBE, Arsenic, Road salt, Sand & deicing chemicals

BiologicalHuman sewage, Pet WasteRed Tide, Domestic Livestock Waste, Wildlife Waste, E. Coli

PhysicalSediment (silt & soil), Trash,Amount and force of flowing water, Temperature

Threats

Beach Closures

PropertyValues

FishKills

Loss isExperienced

7 Ways of KnowingA Knowledge Resource for Collaborative Learning

Governance(GOV)

Science(SCI)

Local(LOC)

Ecological(ECO)

EducationalPractices

(EDU)

Technological(TEC)

Land Use(LAN)

Knowledge

Combined Ways of Knowing

Town Planner

Scientist

EcologicalKnowledge

Public Works Director

EducationalPractices

Knowledge

ScienceKnowledge

LocalKnowledge

GovernanceKnowledge

Land UseKnowledge

Land UseKnowledge

TechnologicalKnowledge

LocalKnowledge

DESIGNEngaging the Kaleidoscope of Expertise

Municipal Officials as a Resource not a Receptacle

ECO

Water isThreatened Water is Valued

SCI

LAN

TEC

GOVEDU

LOC

Planning& Land Use

LandConservation

Drinking H2O

Research & Monitoring

Education &Outreach

Regs &Enforcement

Engineering &Public Safety

Citizen Stewardship

Water isProtected

Protecting our Children’s Water Implementing the Branch Brook Watershed Management Plan

2005 - 2025

IMPLEMENTATION & FACILITATION

Assemble and activate the kaleidoscope of expertise

Shared missions - Watershed Management Plan linked to Comprehensive Plans

Elected official approval

Municipal/State/Federal, NGO, water districts

An experiment for a summer

Meetings, field trips, breakfast at the Cockpit Café

Identify shared values of water and perceptions of threats as fuel for

collaboration

Make conflicts explicit through dialogue and deliberation

Sanford Regional Airport:Where water quality meets homeland security

Property rights vs….

…Property ResponsibilitiesEcosystem Services and Green Infrastructure

Sustaining the Commons

EVALUATION:

Putting a face and a place on ecosystem management

Recognize ecosystem management at local scale Share Lessons in the Landscape• Place-based opportunities for dialogue &

deliberation• Track outcomes & progress

Evaluation to Assessment

Action Research Multi-media Approach Progress on watershed action items Stakeholder consensus to continue Stakeholder survey Stakeholder interviews Elected official consensus to continue Grant funding for group generated

projects

Christine Feurt 207.646.1555 x111cfeurt@wellsnerr.org

Collaborative Learning Guide November 2008

EBM Tools Training Wells NERR Nov 19 & 20

CICEET Project Explorer – Feurt/Final Report December 2008http://www.ciceet.unh.edu/

Elements of Ecosystem ManagementWith a Focus on Land Use

A collaboratively developed vision of desired future outcomes

Indicators of success and a mechanism for tracking progress

Interdisciplinary science as a measure of ecosystem sustainability

Identification and engagement of stakeholders

Place – a workable geographic boundary

Selected ReferencesBernard, H. ed. 1998. Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. New York: Altamira Press.Daniels, S. and G. Walker. 2001. Working Through Environmental Conflict: The Collaborative Learning Approach. Westport, CT: PraegerFeurt, C. 2007. Protecting Our Children’s Water, Using Cultural Models to Frame and Implement Ecosystem Based Management. Ph.D. Dissertation, Antioch University New England. Keene, New Hampshire.Glaser, B. and A. Strauss. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Greenwood, D and Levin, M. 1998. Introduction to Action Research, Social Research for Social Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Gunderson, L. and C. Holling, eds. 2001. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature. Washington, D. C.: Island Press.Holland, D. and N. Quinn. 1987. Cultural Models in Language and Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lubchenco, J. 1998. Entering the century of the environment: A new social contract for science. Science 279: 491-497.Kempton, W., J. Boster and J. Hartley. 1995. Environmental Values in American Culture. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Krum, C. and C. Feurt. 2002. Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Coastal Training Program: Market Analysis and Needs Assessment. Wells NERR: Wells, ME.Lee, K. 1993. Compass and Gyroscope. Integrating science and politics for the environment. Washington, D. C.: Island Press.Meffe, G., L. Nielsen, R. Knight, D. Schenborn. 2002. Ecosystem Management, Adaptive, Community-Based Conservation. Washington, DC: Island Press.NRC. 2005. Decision Making for the Environment. DC: National Academies Press.Paolisso, M. 2002. Blue crabs and controversy on the Chesapeake Bay: A cultural model for understanding watermen’s reasoning about blue crab management. Human Organization 61 (3): 226-239.Quinn, N. ed. 2005. Finding Culture in Talk, A Collection of Methods. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Salafsky, N.,et al., 2001. Adaptive Management: A Tool For Conservation Practitioners. Available at www.fosonline.orgWeiss, R. S. 1994. Learning from Strangers, The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies. New York: The Free Press.

PROCESSNEPA Analysis

Agency Research Programs

Process-oriented, Iterative Social Assessment

Strategic Perspectives Analysis

Adaptive Management

PROCESSNEPA Analysis

Agency Research Programs

Process-oriented, Iterative Social Assessment

Strategic Perspectives Analysis

Adaptive Management

DATAPublic Reactions

Position Statements

Values and Beliefs

IncompleteBehavioral Data

Partial Stakeholder Identification

DATADemography

Behavioral Systems

Conceptual Systems

Spatial and Temporal Variability

Human Ecological and Social Adaptations

PROCESSPublic Involvement

Conflict Management

Collaborative Learning

LocalDecision-making Partnerships

Co-management

PROCESSPublic Involvement

Conflict Management

Collaborative Learning

LocalDecision-making Partnerships

Co-management

PUBLIC INVOLVEMENTPUBLIC INVOLVEMENTSOCIAL ANALYSISSOCIAL ANALYSIS

SOCIAL LEARNINGSOCIAL LEARNING

A Framework for Social Science Contributions to Ecosystem Management

(adapted from Endter-Wada, et.al., 1998 p. 893)