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Planning for a Sustainable Future: The Case of the North American Great
Plains Summary of Discussions and Recommendations | |
| The planning
process The symposium The focus groups |
The Symposium Planning Process The purpose of this symposium and associated focus group discussions was to define an environmentally sustainable future for the North American Great Plains. The symposium planning process began in July 1993, when representatives of Environment Canada and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) met with University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty to solicit the latter's interest in organizing a joint U.S./Canadian symposium on the sustainability of the North American Great Plains. Funding for the meeting was to be provided through a bilateral agreement between the United States and Canada. This meeting was linked to five previous joint symposia that focused on the implications of climate change on regions of common interest to the two nations (such as the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest). This initial planning meeting produced a general consensus on the potential value of such a symposium, but participants decided that a technical workshop was necessary to conceptualize both the symposium's primary objectives and the program format needed to achieve these objectives. This regional workshop, held in October 1993, assembled a diverse and interdisciplinary group of approximately 30 experts to discuss their views of sustainability in the Great Plains. Following this technical workshop, the planning committee met to discuss the symposium planning process and the principal components of the program. Regular conference calls were held to review progress and to delegate assignments. A third organizational meeting was held in July 1994, in conjunction with
the meeting of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). The
symposium was announced to members of the PCSD. At this organizational meeting,
the symposium planning committee agreed on a program format that incorporated
plenary and focus group sessions, as well as a demonstration session that
allowed participants to showcase environmentally sound, resource-efficient
projects that exemplified the concept of sustainability for the North American
Great Plains. Four of these projects were chosen for presentation during the
plenary sessions, two each from Canada and the United States. In addition to the
linkage with the PCSD, the symposium was also linked to the government of
Canada's Sustainable Development Agenda. The North American Great Plains is a critical environmental zone where the impacts of climate change are likely to be more severe and to materialize more rapidly than in less fragile ecosystems. There are many stakeholders in the future of the region, and symposium organizers attempted to engage these persons and groups in a constructive dialogue about the future of the region. Conferees were asked to work together to develop recommendations for future action and policy-relevant research that would lead the region toward a sustainable future. Ideally, long-term solutions should be viable environmentally, economically, and socially. Planning for a Sustainable Future: The Case of the North American Great Plainswas an opportunity for those involved in sustainable development to come together to exchange ideas, ranging from broad policy-level perspectives to highly specific, practical ways to conserve resources and minimize environmental impact. Sustainable development issues were discussed in a regional context, with national and international overtones. Speakers highlighted specific dimensions of the sustainability debate, examining these issues in light of projected changes in climate. The three-day symposium program featured plenary sessions with overview and
technical papers and case studies of specific projects, a showcase session
highlighting more than 40 projects, focus group sessions, a wrap-up session for
presentation of focus group reports, and a symposium synthesis session in which
key U.S. and Canadian participants highlighted what they considered to be the
fundamental questions, issues, and recommendations raised during the symposium.
The planning committee met immediately following the symposium to discuss the
symposium outcome and potential next steps. A document, Visions for the
Future - Urgency for Change (see pp. 13-16), was prepared by members of the
planning committee during this meeting to synthesize information presented
during the symposium and to reemphasize the need to initiate a process to plan
for a sustainable future for the North American Great Plains. Working or focus groups are routinely incorporated in the format of conferences and symposia where the goal is to produce recommendations for a future research and policy agenda. To be successful, considerable thought must be given to this process well in advance of the meeting. For this symposium, the planning committee's goal for the focus groups was to identify key research and policy thrusts that could be implemented by existing or newly established committees or institutions in the region and the transmittal of these recommendations to the PCSD, the government of Canada's Sustainable Development Agenda, and other organizations and institutions for possible further action. To achieve this goal, a subcommittee of the symposium planning committee reviewed the format and output from other meetings on sustainability issues or related resource management topics. This subcommittee proposed alternative approaches and prepared a set of predefined questions to serve as a guide to discussions of each of the focus groups. These materials were shared with the planning committee several weeks before the meeting. The planning committee met on the day preceding the symposium to further explore these organizational alternatives, make revisions in focus group questions, and select the leadership of the focus groups. Focus groups were organized around five themes:
The planning committee's original plan was to have a focus group address climate as a theme. After considerable discussion, it was decided that the issue of climate transcends each of the themes above and, therefore, the issues associated with climate were best addressed in each group, rather than separately. Climate specialists were asked to distribute themselves among the various groups. Each focus group was asked to address the following questions:
One full day of the three-day symposium was devoted to a discussion of these questions by the focus groups - the afternoon of the second day and the morning of the third day. Welcoming and keynote presentations on the first day were given by E. Benjamin Nelson, governor of Nebraska and chairperson of the Great Plains Partnership Council; J. Robert Kerrey, U.S. senator from Nebraska; Robert W. Slater, assistant deputy minister, Environmental Conservation Service of Environment Canada; and Molly Harriss Olson, executive director, President's Council on Sustainable Development. Subsequent presentations on economic and social stressors, the implications of global environmental change, and policies for a sustainable future also helped participants understand the complex issues that place the North American Great Plains at risk in the 21st century. The information in these presentations provided a foundation for the focus group discussions. Participants were allowed to select the focus group they wanted to attend. Although each focus group was asked to respond to the same questions, each approached this assignment in a unique manner. A summary of each focus group's discussions is included in this report (see Part III). The discussion that follows is a distillation of the major recommendations of the focus groups. Focus Groups: Synthesis Underlying the focus groups' discussions was the general understanding that moving toward ways of life that are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable will require new social values; changes to economic, agricultural, and land use policies; and a better understanding of ecosystems and natural resources. At the heart of the problem is replacing the prevailing attitude of consumerism with one of stewardship, and replacing the long-standing U.S. tradition of individualism with a broader responsibility to community. Instead of consuming goods and resources, we need to start thinking about preserving them, and being sure we are not using up ground water, soil fertility, and other natural resources at the expense of future generations. Of course, it isn't just a matter of changing individual attitudes. Prevailing values are reflected in policy, tradition, and law: U.S. agricultural policies tend to favor short-term production, sometimes at the expense of the long-term resource base, and some resources such as ground water are drastically undervalued, because our current economic system does not take depletion of natural resources into account. U.S. environmental law mostly relies on mandates and regulations, which tends to discourage local and individual initiative. The agricultural production focus group observed that farmers face many constraints and pressures and may often have few real choices: they need alternative crops, markets and value-added products, and the opportunity to change. But agricultural policy currently favors high-yield, monocultural crops, which give producers less flexibility and are harder on the land and more vulnerable to widespread disease. Farmers also face heavy debt burdens, lack of access to equity, risk that is personal rather than corporate, high property taxes, high transportation costs, and high costs for fertilizer and pesticides. They have little leverage against big agribusiness firms, virtually no control over global commodity prices, and seemingly little political clout. Many farm families must rely on off-farm income to make ends meet. Both rural families and rural communities would be stronger if they could rely on a more broadly based regional economy. A recurring theme of the conference was the need to establish a sense of place, which would serve both as a source of strength for political action and as a source of wisdom and experience in managing regional natural resources. Some noted that it is harder to establish a sense of place in the Great Plains than in other regions because there is no body of water or other obvious rallying point. The common economic and climatic conditions that define the Great Plains spatially and culturally are harder to grasp. One possible source of regional identity is to emphasize the Plains' importance as a major source of food for the world's growing population. The community and human resources focus group suggested that deep-seated values might be changed most effectively by giving people in the region a new source of a sense of worth based on their importance to the rest of the world. When the Great Plains were first settled, farmers may have enjoyed higher status, with a more direct recognition of the importance of their role as food providers. But as world commodity markets and agricultural policies have become more complex, that status has gradually been lost. The group suggested that Great Plains residents could regain their sense of worth by focusing on their role as providers of a significant portion of the world's food supply, now and in the future. A key problem that each group touched on in different ways was how to communicate with and motivate the many different kinds of people whose efforts and energies will be needed to achieve sustainability. Groups that addressed the question in depth identified government as part of the problem. A regulatory approach, with solutions imposed by remote policy makers, engenders backlash. One group observed that environmental mandates tend to make property owners rebellious. If people felt that they had more freedom, they would be more likely to make decisions with the environment in mind, such as protecting wetlands and wildlife habitats. The role of government should be to work with people to establish overarching goals and a broad policy framework, but the responsibility - and information and funds - to create and implement specific initiatives should be turned over to the communities and regions that are affected. Having the chance to create solutions and to help shape their own future gives people far more incentive to be part of the solution - and it also taps into their firsthand experience and insight in dealing with local issues and problems. In the following section, actions or policies recommended by the five focus groups have been distilled for the reader. No attempt has been made to synthesize the responses to questions 1 and 2 (i.e., identification of stressors and success stories, respectively). Readers are encouraged to examine the full text of the summary for each of the focus groups to acquire a sense of the discussion that unfolded in each of these groups in response to the questions provided by the planning committee. Focus Group Recommendations Recommendation 1. Appoint a Task Force on Sustainability in the Great Plains The Integrated Resource Management focus group recommended that a task force be appointed to ensure that people and institutions in the Great Plains begin moving toward sustainability. The task force, to consist of representatives of many segments of society, both public and private, should not be a government body, but should be able to draw on the data and expertise of government and other stakeholders. The task force could very well be linked with the Great Plains Partnership Council, because that organization already has a relatively broad representation. Other possible starting points would include the Western Governors' Association and the Western Premiers' Association. For the process to work, leadership will be required from both private and public sectors and from citizen groups. The motivating force may be a crisis or a growing sense of urgency. A charismatic, visionary task force leader who can articulate the idea of sustainability to a variety of audiences would also be required.
Recommendation 2. Open a Dialog on Sustainability We need to connect different sectors of society to be sure that each can benefit from the wealth of information that others have. When groups do not communicate with one another, good ideas and solutions do not go as far as they could, and information needs go unmet. Sharing information with local decision makers is also a good way for government to empower communities; unfortunately, government agencies do not always communicate well with one another, much less with people who are even more removed from habitual patterns of communication. Partnerships must be established between government and groups or communities. The focus groups identified many sectors of society that must be involved in discussions of sustainability:
Information delivery can be improved through a targeted approach by educational institutions. Universities can facilitate improved communication by the development of a better interface between scientists, policy makers, and agricultural producers. Grassroots communication.We need to take advantage of pre-existing information channels. In fact, identifying and respecting the informal channels within small communities may be the only credible way to introduce new ideas. Working with community leaders, both elected and de facto, will be helpful. The cooperative extension service may be useful in communicating issues about sustainability to a diverse audience; the broader public education system could also play a role here, especially given that the current generation of youth seems particularly receptive to information about the planet and the environment. Whatever roles these and other government organizations have, we need to be sure that the different units of government are acting in coordination and are not contradicting one another. Other organizations that could communicate with their members about sustainability include senior citizens' groups; Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other similar groups; 4-H; and many others. It will be especially important to involve the business community early on, because the support of business leaders will be critical to the success of grassroots initiatives. Business is also a group that may feel threatened by sustainable development if it is not involved in initiatives from the outset. Several focus groups noted that as Internet access becomes more commonplace, traditional information channels will become less important, with more people able to connect directly to acquire current research findings. Data and information needs.The Integrated Resources Management focus group noted that the U.S.-Canadian border sometimes hinders the flow of data. U.S. and Canadian data are often incompatible in format. Canadians also have a different attitude about data: it is expensive to collect, so people are increasingly being charged appropriate fees to use it. The United States is moving toward user fees, but data is still generally available. The group also noted a need for information, not just data, and for regional-scale models rather than global analytical models. The group recommended that an environmental information center be created, with the goal of providing impartial data and information to decision makers. Recommendation 3. Improve Understanding between Food Consumers and Food Producers We need to improve communication about the importance of food and agriculture to a wider audience, which should include:
Recommendation 4. Research Needs Develop indicators of sustainability.Indicators suggested by the focus groups included:
Assess regional vulnerability. Groups suggested that a regionally integrated vulnerability assessment of the Great Plains be conducted, based on a host of climate model scenarios. This study should assess potential changes in water availability, suitability of crops, and changes in soil moisture regimes. The study should also consider the possible effects of changing demographics, trade policy, and so forth on the region. Conduct soil ecology research.Groups identified several soil-related research needs, and also emphasized that research findings must be shared with agricultural producers and others who can make practical use of them.
On-farm energy use. Using less energy would help farmers reduce costs and would be compatible with the conservation ethic needed for sustainability. But more research is needed.
Changes in how research is conducted. The agricultural production group recommended that more research be conducted on farms rather than on research stations. On-farm research helps develop closer ties between researchers and agricultural producers, as well as the local financial community and others whose support is important. This approach would help to promote the "team" concept of research, building stronger partnerships between farmers and researchers. The idea of "ecoregions" should be incorporated as research sites are selected, to avoid duplicating research but to ensure that research will meet the needs of farmers in various regions. More research should be approached in a "systems" context to fully address the complex issues associated with sustainability in the region. Recommendation 5. Implement Policies that Support Sustainability
Recommendation 6. Create a Sustainability Notebook Representatives of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) offered to lead efforts to establish a sustainability notebook to serve as a guide on sustainable development, helping a variety of people understand what sustainable development is and giving examples of ongoing initiatives. This notebook would be available at the IISD's World Wide Web site and would represent a never-ending work in progress. Recommendation 7. Availability of Symposium Proceedings The proceedings of this symposium should be made available to a wide audience, both through traditional publication channels and through the Internet. The IISD in Winnipeg volunteered to make this report available through their Web site. It will also be available through the National Drought Mitigation Center's Web site at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A workshop or series of workshops was considered to be another useful approach to disseminating the results of the symposium and promoting the concept of sustainability to many sectors throughout the region. About the Authors Donald A. Wilhite is a member of the faculty of the Department of Agricultural Meteorology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also the director of the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the International Drought Information Center. He specializes in studies of the impact of climate on society and societal response to climatic events, particularly drought. Dr. Wilhite has organized numerous workshops, training seminars, and conferences on climate and drought-related issues. He was the principal organizer of a conference, Drought Management in a Changing West: New Directions for Water Policy, held in Portland, Oregon, in May 1994, and the symposium Planning for a Sustainable Future: The Case of the North American Great Plains. Kelly Helm Smith is an information specialist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. Ms. Smith's responsibilities for the NDMC include ensuring that materials are written to communicate effectively with a broad readership and helping envision, organize, research, write, and edit the NDMC's WWW site. Before joining the NDMC, Ms. Smith worked in corporate public relations, specializing in researching and writing about environmental issues affecting the printing and publishing industries. Before that, she was a reporter at daily newspapers in Illinois and Wisconsin. |