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CHAPTER 3. POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL, AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

3.7. Resources

3.7.1. Human Resources

The preparation of qualified human resources is a fundamental component of any environmental policy to solve problems of eutrophication and water related issues. Training should be connected with the occupational context in which planners, administrators, managers, business leaders, senior bureaucrats, and decision markers work. An important topic in the training procedure is to take into account political conditions in the different countries, regions and localities. The characteristics of the training activities should be based on following criteria:

• Enhancing the ability to integrate environmental management into planning and into public policy.
• Stressing the need for incorporating scientific basis for the management, regulatory and policy process.
• Emphasizing the need for a new approach to environmental management and eutrophication control based on the development of partnerships of the public private sector and participation of the community.

The orientation for training should give priority to the following topics:

• Development of the training activity in a regional context, selecting local or regional case studies, as demonstration units. Orientation for action and practice: usually training in field seminars with the real local problems is very effective.
• Discussion and preservation of social dynamics including the historical background of the eutrophication/water related issues, economic issues related to water uses on a local scale, social organization and its interaction with water uses and impacts.
• Comparative aspects should be stressed, e.g., pristine systems versus eutrophic systems and economic issues involved.

The following basis for training is recommended:

• An ecosystem approach is fundamental for the training activity. The ecosystem unit to be considered is the watershed.
• The emphasis on biogeophysical, economical, and social problems of eutrophication control and water related issues are also a priority. It is essential that the training emphasize, not only descriptive aspects of the ecosystem structure, but the functional characteristics and the processes at spatial and temporal scales.
• The analysis and use of local or regional data bases, data evaluation and interpretation. The usefulness of historical series and the need to utilize the existing information with maximum capacity, should be stressed.
• Cost implications, cost analysis of methods and procedures, as well as mechanism of interactions between academic and research institutions, NGOs, industry, media, and citizen groups. Seminars with interested groups are an effective way to identify general demands for training activities and the content.

Training techniques and instructional methods that can be used are as follows:

• Project case studies as demonstration units.
• Field seminars with practical observations.
• Problem solving exercises.
• Workshops combined with group dynamics.
• Study tours and excursions.
• Lectures by resource persons followed by group discussions

The training activity and programme should be adjusted to various groups and their demands. The use of resource persons with a wide experience to expose conceptual and general problems of eutrophication/water related use is of significance. This resource person should be supported and interact with local regional experts with in-depth knowledge of the local region and their problems. It is also fundamental that the training team involves scientists (biologists, limnologists) engineers and water managers, and decision-makers. Two basic characteristics of the training produced should be considered as priorities:

• Focus on eutrophication on causes, consequences, control, recovery of freshwater ecosystems and water related issues.
• Articulation of scientific, managerial, regulatory, and institutional issues. The priority to capacity building at national, regional, and local levels is fundamental for the consolidation of the process and the continuity of the actions. This capacity building includes the whole range of decision-makers, managers, and local politicians. School teachers can be very instrumental for the capacity building, being a de-codifier of the scientific information to school children and the general public. Also, they also can be very important in monitoring.

Financial Resources

Under conditions of financial constraints it is difficult to implement projects and start effective actions. The experience from many countries and situations shows that a pool of financial resources from several sources is the best possible solution to be searched. In this case, the following configuration has been effective in projects and programmes in both industrialized nations and developing countries:

• Support from international financing agencies.
• Support from local financing agencies and donor agencies.
• Participation of the private sector.

In this last component, the establishment of incentives for investing in research and management can be a powerful tool to interest the private sector in the joint financing process. The preparation of qualified human resources also involves financial support from local donor agencies. In Brazil, the experience of a professional MSc programme shared with industry and university is becoming particularly suitable to solve questions and problems related to water management and eutrophication control. The cost of training is shared among public or private universities, private industries, and companies.

Centres for Research, Innovation and Diffusion

Another experience that is relevant, once resources are pooled together to solve several problems, is the implementation of Centres for Research, Innovation, and Diffusion. One of the several institutional constraints for the effective management of watersheds and water resources is the compartment and sector approach that exists traditionally between the generation of knowledge, the inclusion of private sector into the system, and the diffusion of this knowledge to the community. This impairs the availability of resources to the whole process, disrupts the chain between knowledge/productive sector/community and slows down effective decisions and actions.

In order to overcome these constraints, the establishment of centres for research, innovation, and diffusion of knowledge are probably the adequate institutional solutions. These centres would:

• Develop, intensively, research on the watershed as units implementing a holistic overview of the system,
• interact with the community to promote new techniques for dissemination of information,
• disseminate information to the general public,
• implement a training programmer for school teachers, managers, decision-makers, components of private sector,
• interact with the private sector in order to develop mechanisms for stimulating the involvement of private initiatives into the water business, and supporting the establishment of small companies with a high level of technological aggregation.

In this centre an incubator for private companies interested to develop joint ventures with the academic sector can be implemented. This experience is now underway in São Paulo State, Brazil with the sponsorship of the São Paulo State Agency for Support of Research (FAPESP), based on an earlier initiative of the National Science Foundation in the U.S.A. The integration of the three activities in a single centre, could be the solution for the optimization of financial and human resources and implementation of management actions and diffusion.

Preparation of Case Studies

Case studies can be a useful tool for training at all levels. They can be examples of planning and management practices taking into account local/regional conditions, the existing advantages and constraints. Cases studies can show the importance of database and scientific knowledge, highlight the difficulties or facilities for articulations of the partners, and provide a basis for a synthesis considering the integrative process at the watershed level. Field experience in case studies is of high value for the demonstration of successes and failures, institutional constraints, and the need to a better interaction between policy and instruments.

Institutional Networks

The establishment of institutional networks is an efficient mechanism to pool resources for training, strengthen the databases, and enforce integrative approaches. The networks coordinate efforts at regional or sub-regional levels, link government institutions and private ones, and provide a regional counterpart for international organizations that will be part of the network. The international organizations support the necessary links for the network, mainly exchange of personnel and access to literature and other databases. To produce the "multiplier effect", the existing structure should be used. It is vital to utilize the experience, the human resources, and the institutions within each country in order to assure continuity and build up expertise on a long-term basis. International societies or federation of societies can provide support in the form of professional expertise, resource persons, up dating of the state-of-the-art.

Table of Contents

• Brochure
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• International Year of Forests
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• World Environment Day
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• UNEP Campaign
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