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An evaluation of Nature Conservation Policies for sustainability
by
Susan Marango
College of Social Science, University of Lincoln (UK)
Abstract
The concept of Sustainable Development is increasingly being used to guide public policy making. However, there is little empirical evidence with regards to establishing the extent to which the Nature conservation policies support the themes of Sustainable Development. A review of policies and plans that utilise the concept of Sustainable Development in the policy-making process is required to evaluate if they support the themes of Sustainable Development. This article focuses on evaluating nature conservation policies and plans that utilise the concept of sustainable development in the policy-making process. The aim being to investigate how the principles and themes of sustainable development are interpreted, reflected and presented in the existing local, national and international policy frameworks. The paper offers a structured reflection on identified 5 Local policies (for Central Lincolnshire), 4 National policies (in the United Kingdom) and 5 Directives (European Union Directives) that are nature conservation oriented and state that they are underpinned by the concept of Sustainable Development. A framework of analysis is drawn from 5 selected themes of Sustainable Development and used to test the policies to determine how well they support the concept of Sustainable Development. Findings indicate that not all themes of Sustainable Development are adequately addressed which stipulate that the selected policies and plans do not provide sufficient support for sustainable development, as they address some themes more significantly than others. The results also reveal that planning for sustainability at each level, that is Local, National and Regional is disjointed. However, this study did not establish the impact of disjointed planning on the extent to which the themes of Sustainable Development are identified and addressed in the policy documents. Follow up studies are required to establish the causes of disjointment and how this impacts on the inclusion of the themes of Sustainable Development in policy-making. It is also key to establish how lessons learnt from best practices on a local community approach to Sustainable Development (through community-led nature conservation activities) can be utilised to inform local nature conservation policy in Central Lincolnshire.
Key words: Sustainable development; Nature conservation policies; Policy making; Policy evaluation.
Paper type: Working paper
Introduction
Sustainable Development appears to be a simple concept but there is no general agreement on how the concept of Sustainable Development should be translated into practice (Jepson, 2001) but what is certain is that the utilisation of the concept in guiding planning is increasing (Kevin and Powers, 1996). The concept is also viewed as an “ultimate planning goal” (Briassoulis, 1999) and utilised as a visionary concept that has been chosen to guide the planning agenda in the twenty-first century (Berke and Conroy, 2000; Berke, 2002 and Jepson, 2004) The concept of Sustainable development has been adapted at a National level in the United Kingdom and implemented through a directive from the DCLG National Policy Planning framework of 2012, statement 151 which reads; Local Plans must be prepared with the objective of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development. In agreement with the provision of the directive, Berke (2007) highlights that it is the responsibility of the policy practitioners, especially at local level to ensure that the concept of sustainable development is not only acknowledged in theory but also put in practice. This study is therefore in line with the views of Berke, it scrutinises the plans (that state that they are utilising the concept of sustainable development as a planning tool) for clarity in the themes of sustainable development they set out to pursue and how they intend to achieve them. The policy documents are also scrutinised to check if they have planned activities to achieve the themes of Sustainable Development and also investigated if they are explicit on how the policies are to be implemented and by whom?
Policy evaluation for sustainability
Policy evaluation for sustainability and its implementation is perceived as an important exercise that is utilised as a management instrument that controls policy making and processing (von Raggamby and Rubik, 2012:xvi) as it helps to understand the intended effects of the policy and outcomes of the policy. The policy evaluation exercise can also be used as a strategy in implementing policies and also can aid policy practitioners in reflecting on the policy making process and the public can be enlightened on whether the policies are contributing to making the society more sustainable or not (von Raggamby and Rubik, 2012:xvii). Stockman (2008) added that sustainability evaluation help to check the success of the sustainability pillars (economic, environmental and social) with regards to supplying the political system with information. Therefore the evaluation for sustainability can make a contribution to policy making.
In line with the views of von Raggamby and Rubik (2012) on the role of policy evaluation, this study will inform policy practitioners as well as the public (local community) on the extent to which the concept of sustainable development and its selected themes and principles have been utilised in the policy-making process as reflected in the policy documents, and establish areas where improvements could be made. Also key to this assessment is the analysis on the acknowledgement, inclusion and integration of the pillars of sustainable development in nature conservation policy formulation. However, the analysis on the success of implementation of the policies and the integration of the pillars on the ground is not part of this study. Therefore, this policy document analysis addresses the following research question;
‘To what extent have the themes of sustainable development been utilised in the policy documents?’
How to evaluate policies for sustainability?
According to von Raggamby and Rubik (2012: xvii), to conduct an evaluation of policies for sustainability, relevant themes should be selected and goals as well as indicators. Berke and Conroy (2000) conducted an evaluation of 30 comprehensive plans consisting of 10 plans that supported sustainable development and 20 plans that were not in support of sustainable development, selected from 105 counties in the United States. The aim was to establish if the plans that use the sustainable development as an organising concept also promote the principles of sustainable development and to what extent? They found that the plans that used sustainable development as a planning concept, did not take a balanced, holistic approach that guided sustainable development. This study investigates the United Kingdom nature conservation plans for their ability to contribute to achieving the requirements of the themes for Sustainable, identify the existence of inconsistencies and reveal possible causes of this.
Meanwhile, Delome and Theys (2000:104) stated that measuring sustainability requires that, a common set of principles are identified in line with the approaches to evaluate policy and indicators of the principles identified at different decision making levels. Tilbury and Mula (2009) investigated how culture has been integrated in National and Regional Sustainable development policies. Their method of evaluation involved developing a framework of analysis and a set of questions to assess the extent to which the sustainable development policies are responsive to the principles of culture diversity. Widmer (2012: 271) added that in ensuring quality of evaluation for sustainability, the evaluator should seek to deduce a sustainability and evaluation criteria, evaluate objects that whose intended goal is sustainability and the level of sustainability applied by the evaluator should be known.
This study combines different aspects of the methods used by the (von Raggamby and Rubik (2012); Berke and Conroy (2000); Delome and Theys (2000); Widmer (2012:271) and Tilbury and Mula (2009).
The common themes of Sustainable Development
Various definitions of sustainable development as given by environmentalists and nature conservationists are investigated in this study. Common themes within the definitions of sustainable development in line with the 27 principles of sustainable development (as outlined in the given by the United Nations Report of June 1972) are identified.
This study revealed that the most common themes that are frequently cited in literature are;
· Long term view (In line with principle 3 and 21)
· Integration and balance of economic, social and environmental objectives (In line with principle 4 and 25)
· Quality of life/human wellbeing (In line with principle 1, 5 and 8 of sustainable development)
· Intra-and inter-generational equity (In line with principle 3 and 6)
· Prudent use of natural resources (In line with principle 15)
These identified common themes also concur with the findings of Delorme et al., (2005) who also established that, among the most commonly cited themes of sustainable development, the consideration of intra- and intergenerational equity; long-term global vision; concern for environmental constraints; and the integration of all components is key for development.
The findings on the common themes of sustainable development are also in line with the views of (Mawhinney, 2002:12 and Byrch et al.; 2007) who stated that, although the definition of sustainability may vary, what is noteworthy is that there is some consensus on the themes of the concept of sustainable development. There is also an agreement among academics and policy-makers that sustainable development include issues concerning justice, intra and intergenerational equity (Ferrell and Hart, 1998 and Byrch et al., 2007) and how they are applicable to different groups of people and societies. What is key to note is that, “different aspects/ themes are given weight based on the research interests, research tradition, scientific background, understanding of nature and perceptions on value.” (Jepson, 2003 and von Raggamby and Rubik, 2012: 5). As such sustainable development can be presented as a set of values (Desai and Potter, 2002 and Bryrch et al., 2007) and principles of moral aspects and also perceived as a vision for the future (Bryrch et al., 2007).
Are the identified themes of Sustainable Development related?
The identified themes present some challenges in achieving sustainable development. Being future oriented requires predicting the future and this may require that we decide and plan for the present and the future generations. Elliot (2006:11) cautions that care must be taken to ensure that the current needs are not fulfilled at the expense of others. This shows that although there is a consensus on future orientation, clarity on what defines needs and quality of life and how to address them is important. There is also a consensus on intra and intergenerational equity. Elliot (2006:11) also advises that clarity is required on what exactly is shared or passed from one generation to another? It is therefore key that the policy documents are explicit on how they define and address the themes as interpreted by the policy makers.
Prudent use of natural resource is also essential and is linked to other themes such as future orientation. Prudent use of resources would also determine whether intra and intergenerational equity is achieved as it involves planning resource use and efficiency which would be able to cater for others now and into the future. That is action in using and protecting resources of the world, such that, human development needs are met more equitably today without compromising options for the same actions tomorrow. What is also certain is that, solutions that are flexible are required for programmes, policies and projects that aim to achieve sustainable development.
Meanwhile studies by Elkington (1997); (Stead et al., 2004) and (Byrch et al., 2007) indicate that, sustainable development is usually perceived to consist of economic, social and environmental dimensions. There is also a consensus on accepting an interdisciplinary framework through integrating economic, social and environmental aspects. In evaluating the policies, it is also key to find out if there is acknowledgement of the dimensions of sustainable development and establish if the plans are formulated on their integration to clarify links between them and where applicable clarifications made on separation of conflicting aspects.
The role of local knowledge in local policy making
The way local knowledge is organised and its association with culture as well as how it relates with science has become of interest of late, especially the role local knowledge plays in facilitating new strategies of environmental resource (Gadgil et al, 2000; Brown, 2003 and Davis and Wagner, 2003). Scientific knowledge has its limits and a paradigm shift is required to combine traditional knowledge with scientific (Berkes, 2004). Community-led nature conservation has also been pointed out to have the potential to bring about local knowledge on ecosystem dynamics and management practices that can be utilised to inform nature conservation policies and actions (Berke et al, 2000 and Fabricius and Koch 2004 and Fetene, 2012). This is so because they interact with the ecosystem on a daily basis and their culture, values and norms and attitude that shape the direction and future of nature conservation.
The norms and rules that evolve from the local community to sustainably manage natural resources are viewed to be powerful (Agrawal, 1999) as they have the potential to encourage cooperative decision making in the community if the community members have a shared identity and experiences that are similar. Therefore lessons learnt from best practices on a local community approach to Sustainable Development (through small scale community-led nature conservation activities) can be utilised to inform local nature conservation policy thereby improving the way the themes of sustainable development are addressed in local policy making.
Plan evaluation method
The study utilised the following steps to analyse the policy documents for sustainability;
1. Investigating various definitions of sustainable development as given by environmentalists and nature conservationists and identifying common themes of sustainable development in line with the 27 principles of sustainable development as stated in the given by the United Nations Report of June 1972.
The following themes were identified as key;
· Long term view (In line with principle 3 and 21)
· Integration and balance of economic, social and environmental objectives (In line with principle 4 and 25)
· Quality of life/human wellbeing (In line with principle 1,5 and 8 of sustainable development)
· Intra-and inter-generational equity (In line with principle 3 and 6)