The Councillor as Guardian of the Environment


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<The Councillor as Guardian of the Environment>

An Essay and Workshop for Local Elected Leaders on Environmental Governance
with Emphasis on Adopting Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs)
- Training for Elected Leadership -

Part I - Essay on the Councillor as Guardian of the Environment
- ESSAY -
Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does
to the web he does to himself. Chief Seattle, Native American Leader, 1857.

Definition and Summary

D. Tactics, Strategies and Approaches for Sustainable Development

As we have stated many times, there are numerous tools, tactics, strategies, resources and success stories you can use in your council's efforts to build a sustainable capacity to engage in sustainable development. Some will seem fairly routine while you may think others are beyond the reach of your council and local government organization. But all, we hope, will spark your imagination and start you thinking creatively about how to become a better Guardian of the Environment. So, it's time to open the Managing Change toolbox and examine some of these tools in more depth. Let's begin with those in the drawer marked Awareness and Vision.

1. GAINING AWARENESS-CREATING VISIONS

Awareness and vision are the most essential tools for developing sustainable responses to environmental challenges. If you don't know a problem exists, you are not likely to solve it. If there is no vision of a better tomorrow, it is very difficult to plan and work towards its realization. Being a Guardian of the Environment requires both these tools, for different reasons. Let's take a brief look at what makes these tools distinctive and explore some ways to sharpen them.

Awareness is a personal trait, characteristic, and skill that helps us determine when the state of our environment, for example, is not what it should be. Vision, on the other hand, helps us to see a future environmental state that is vastly improved. Both kinds of personal detecting equipment are important in the role of environmental guardian. But, they are different in the following ways:

AWARENESS	VISION
1. Is more tactical; short term in perspective.	1. Is strategic, involving long range thinking.
2. Pays more attention to the details.	2. Sees the situation from a broader perspective
3. Often requires determining what has gone wrong and how to fix it.	3. Imagining how things could be in the future.
4. Involves more convergent thinking (focusing in).	4. Is best achieved through divergent thinking (straying from the rational path).
5. Is more reactive behaviour.	5. Is more anticipatory.

When the World Commission on Environment and Development issued its report nearly ten years ago, it provided a new level of awareness about the state of environment and development that hadn't existed before. The Commission also describe the standards required to achieve a vision of sustainable development for the future.

These included:

a political system that secures effective citizen participation in decision making;
an economic system that is able to generate surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and sustained basis;
a social system that provides for solutions for the tensions arising from disharmonious development;
a production system that respects the obligation to preserve the ecological base for development;
a technological system that can search continuously for new solutions; and
an administrative system that is flexible and has the capacity for self-correction.

Question: How do the every day reality of your local government's development and environmental efforts measure up to the Commission's standards?

Before going further, we want to describe a situation that has developed in a medium sized city in one of the world's most beautiful settings, the Rift Valley in Eastern Africa. It involves honorable intentions, technical assistance, international cooperation, different perspectives about problem sources and possible solutions, angry confrontations among scientists and government officials, and (in the opinion of many who are studying the situation) ecological devastation. The dilemma facing the City of Nakuru, Kenya dramatizes the clash that often emerges when nature and technology meet head on.

[To construct this story, we have relied on a series of articles from Kenya's leading newspaper, the Daily and Sunday Nation. Dr. Warui Karanja, Senior Lecturer in Ecology at the University of Nairobi, created a firestorm of controversy when he told the story of Nakuru's misfortunes in a special report to the Sunday edition of the Nation on 21 January 1996. This article was followed by an official rejoinder by the Government of Kenya which was aired in the Nation just ten days later. We have borrowed generously from these news article and hope we have not infringed on the integrity of any of the information sources in what is obviously a complex and vexing dilemma for all who have been and continue to be involved.]

Flamingos' Paradise: Temporarily Lost

From outer space, Lake Nakuru must look like a tear drop on the face of Africa. From downtown Nakuru, the tears are real. In the opinion of many observers, the burgeoning city has lost its mark of distinction and a huge chunk of its local economy through the generosity and good intentions of a donor country half a world away.

The two million plus flamingos that graced the shores of Lake Nakuru have departed, taking with them the tourists who came from around the world to experience the pink clouds the birds created when in flight. As Dr. Karanja points out, Lake Nakuru is not a lake in the true sense of the word. It is "a giant raw sewage treatment pond or lagoon"; 42 square kilometers in size; that, for decades, has been receiving raw human waste and industrial effluent from the neighboring town by the same name. Because of a rare combination of events, a symbiotic relationship between human waste and some of nature's most beautiful creatures evolved.

The most likely culprit in this sad scenario, according to Karanja and others, is a new Sh800 million (in excess of $20 million dollars) complex of water treatment lagoons, funded by a well intentioned international donor. The new lagoons have effectively stopped the dumping of raw sewage and related water into Lake Nakuru at the same time ground water going into the lake has slowed to a trickle due to more intensive farming in the catchment area. Consequently, the lake's complex ecosystems seems to have collapsed.

Dr. Karanja in his article called for the dismantling of the newly constructed "ultra-modern" sewage treatment lagoons which would allow the raw sewage to return to the lake. But, he goes on to say, "this would be a very painful undertaking, both diplomatically and economically (we are talking of government-to-government 'cooperation' involving no less than Sh800 million being flushed down the drain.")

Representatives of the Government of Kenya issued a statement to the media, shortly after the Karanja article appeared, to defend the actions that were taken to assist the Nakuru community with its waste water problems. Among other comments, the Government representative stated it was "found prudent to construct a sufficient sewerage scheme at Nakuru for the treatment of domestic and industrial waste water in order to abate water pollution to the lake." As foundation for its position, the government pointed to the results of environmental impact assessment studies conducted to determine the impact of the Greater Nakuru Water Supply Project on the Lake Nakuru basin.

Three reasons were given by the government for its decision to begin phased implementation of the project with the assistance of external funding agencies. First was increased water demand, projected at nearly two times the current supply. Second was the overloaded sewage treatment plant which had for a long time been discharging partially treated sewage into the lake. Third was the continuous drainage of storm water from the Town of Nakuru into the lake, carrying with it various non-biodegradable pollutants and waste oils.

A team of experts dispatched by the Kenya Wildlife Service to investigate the controversial dwindling flamingo population at Lake Nakuru reached some surprising conclusions. "Whereas, in the past conventional ecology and environmental conservation have pursued a no-effluent policy, the Nakuru findings point to the fact that effluent may not be bad after all. Species subjected to pollution," according to the team's investigations, "might be adapting and improving in their ability to survive in polluted environments." If so, it is a finding that runs contrary to the government's claims.⁴

While the environmentalists and the government seemed to be working from polar positions, supported in large measure by the conventional wisdom defining their respective disciplines and concerns, the Wildlife Service was suggesting the emergence of a new paradigm. Given the diversity of opinion about the plight of the flamingoes, could the controversy surrounding the Nakuru dilemma have been avoided through:

1. Greater awareness of the ecological balance that nature had created over the years; and
2. A vision of the consequences that would result from technological changes designed to cope with the pervasive problem of human waste?

Perhaps.

A Wake-up Call

Sometimes adversity is the mother of invention. When two million pink flamingos left Nakuru, it was a wake-up call to many community leaders that all was not well. Just prior to the controversy, the Municipal Council of Nakuru, in collaboration with UNCHS (Habitat) and the Belgium Administration for Development Cooperation, signed an Urban Pact outlining an agenda of actions designed to achieve a broad range of community objectives. They are an integral part of Nakuru's commitment to, and involvement in, Localizing Agenda 21: Action Planning for Sustainable Urban Development. The stakes involved in implementing the action plan have been raised by the flight of the flamingos. So has the community's awareness about the fragile nature of its natural environment as it confronts the reality of urban growth and technological change that comes with economic activity.

Fortunately, many of the flamingos have returned to Nakuru. But, the challenge remains. As the water level in Lake Nakuru receded, for whatever reason, the air became more polluted by dust that contained an exotic mix of chemical residue. The complexity of the dilemma continues to unfold. Nevertheless, positive results have evolved from the saga of the fleeing flamingos:

community awareness and understanding have increased about the challenges associated with technology and its impact on the environment, both good and bad;
the number of stakeholders (partners and coalitions), and the dialogue within and beyond the community boundaries, have expanded because of the open controversy; and,
the Council's commitment and resolve to carry out the actions defined within the Localizing Agenda 21 Project has been strengthened. Let's look at some of the principles and assumptions that guide SCP and form the basis for the role of environmental guardian by local elected officials.

Lessons to be learned

The City Councillors of Nakuru have joined the long list of communities that have experienced controversy from ventures supported by external donors and been caught in the crossfire of technical debate and alternatives solutions. We are not suggesting the two are necessarily linked, but surely there are lessons to be learned from the double barreled assault experienced by the councillors in Nakuru. We want to suggest the following for openers. Perhaps you can think of more.

The old admonition among farmers that "you should never look a gift horse in the mouth" is no longer valid. Gifts can, at times, be very expensive to those who receive them.
Developing countries, and their local governments, are frequently at a disadvantage when confronted with external technical assistance. While communities involved in projects with potentially adverse environmental consequences should consult credible environmental ecologists, there is a problem. As Dr. Karanja points out in his article, developing countries have only seven percent of the world's qualified ecologists. Efforts must be made to share these scarce resources in a more equitable and effective way.
Ecological wisdom is often found among local people who innately understand the symbiotic relationship between planet earth and those who dwell on it for short periods of time. Unfortunately, their advise and experience are rarely sought when "high level" discussions take place between outside "experts" and local leaders who are anxious to get assistance in solving a problem. (We will relate such an incident from Asia in the discussion of Partners and Coalitions.)
It helps to recognize that everything in one way or another is connected to everything else. The causal relationships that emerge from the ever evolving accommodation between urbanization and nature are often coping mechanisms, designed to make the best of a bad situation. Being aware of this and following the possible cause-effect chain of events before it happens can create visions of future realities you may or may not want to create by acting too quickly.
Which is another way of saying consider the consequences before they happen. "What if...?" is one of the most important questions to be asked by the councillor who takes seriously the role of Guardian of the Environment. It should be in the top drawer of your tool kit.

The Trap of "Unawareness"

Before leaving the discussion of awareness, we want to stress the importance of this tool in helping us be sensitive to acts of degradation to our environment. We often become "unaware" of problems like the accumulation of trash and litter on our streets and in our parks. Or, to gradual fouling of our rivers and streams with various kinds of pollutants. After "living with" these problems over time, there is a tendency to not see them, to not be aware that they even exist. Our senses of awareness are often dulled by familiarity, constancy, and acceptance. Sometimes we have to learn, or relearn how to be more aware of the world around us.

There are plenty of information sources to avoid stepping into the trap of "unawareness." UNEP IETC, for example, can offer its Searchable Directory on Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) containing data on technology related information systems worldwide, institutions dealing with ESTs, and selected technologies for city and water management.

And What To Do About It!

Our ability to be more aware of what is happening to the environment can be enhanced by a variety of activities and events. For example:

monitoring of changes in the level of certain pollutants in the air and water of your community;
staff reports on the consequences in disposing of hazardous materials in the local sanitary landfill;
greater attention, at budget time, to the percentage of resources being allocated to environmental programs;
attending conferences and workshops that focus on the use of new environmental technologies;
exchanging ideas and information with officials from other communities who are experiencing the same problems - or trying new approaches to solving their problems.

Awareness is the act of using all our senses to monitor the current state of our environs: hearing, touching, seeing, smelling and, sometimes, even tasting the consequences of our collective and individual actions as they relate to our natural environment.

We need to close our eyes for a while and listen.
There is always something unheard of in the air.

Karlheinz Stockhausen
20th century composer

Awareness helps us discover and understand what is. Vision, on the other hand, is a tool to help us define our perceptions of future reality, what can be. Envisioning the future is largely a creative process. Creating a picture of what you would like the future to be for you and your children. Robert Fritz, author of The Path of Least Resistance, reminds us that the best place to begin the creative process is at the end. In other words, "What is the final result you want?" He says,

"This way of thinking helps you conceive the result you want to
create independently from how you will create it. This is
probably the opposite of what you learned in school."⁵

Vision and creativity is the ability to stay with the what before you start worrying about the how. It is having a concept of where you want your community to go, in terms of sustainable development, before you start building the vehicle to get you there.

Transforming corporate and community visions into short, coherent and uplifting written statements of future intent is useful, but not always easy. The following vision statement for metropolitan Durban's Local Agenda 21 initiative is among the best we have seen.

"In 20 years metropolitan Durban will be a thriving industrial and
commercial centre, an attractive tourist destination and the gateway
to KwaZulu-Natal and Southern Africa. It will be a clean and safe
environment with less than 10% unemployment, more than 90% of
residents living in acceptable serviced housing: and with a generally
high quality of life that can be sustained. Democracy and tolerance
will be an established way of life."

In the context of this discussion, the vision is what you want your community to be in terms of sustainable development and a "healthy" environment at some future point in time.

Curitiba, Brazil: A Visionary Case in Point

Curitiba, Brazil has captured the attention and imagination of planners, urbanists and public leaders from around the world for its bold and effective approaches to guiding and managing rapid urban growth. The vision of what Curitiba should represent as a viable and vibrant city was forged long before the onslaught of emigrants from the country side in the 1970s when the city nearly doubled in population. While we will highlight some of the achievements of this model urban environment at the end of the essay, we want to emphasize here what many believe to be the keystone of their success over the past three decades and more

The elected leaders of Curitiba adopted a comprehensive plan in the sixties that has proven over the years to be both bold and visionary. While the plan called for the integration of traffic management, transportation and land use planning to support long term strategic objectives, it went beyond these planning and operational technologies to incorporate social and cultural values and concerns. At the heart of the overall transportation and land use recommendations was a rather drastic plan to create several structural transportation axes that would crisscross the city and support the full range of urban needs. These axes, analogous to the main arteries found in the human body, have continued to serve the dramatic expansion of the city and remain healthy and fully functioning as the city matures.

Moreover, the vision as defined several decades ago was holistic, going far beyond the physical needs of the citizens. Too often, magnet cities, such as Curitiba, become mere repositories for the rural poor and the migrating hopefuls. The sense of community and the social and cultural needs of the new citizens becomes lost in the milieu. The genius of the Curitiba vision was its attention to sustaining these "softer" elements of development: decentralizing work opportunities; encouraging social interaction by the creation of leisure areas; supporting the preservation of cultural heritage for those who had become uprooted out of economic necessity. Visions require visionaries in conceptualizing the future.

Visions also require visionaries to stay the course, to make real what others deem possible. We will return to Curitiba as we conclude this discussion to highlight the exemplary service of the elected officials and staff of the city in their roles as leaders and Guardians of the Environment.

Reflection

Earlier in this discussion we deliberately used the term healthy because we want you to sit back, close your eyes and think about what "healthy" means. Now, jot down in the space below some words, phrases and images that came to mind as you though about the concept of healthy.

__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

You may have been thinking about your own body, or perhaps someone who is close to you that may not be as healthy as you would like them to be. In this little exercise you probably started with your concept of what healthy means. Good! We need to think in concepts before we begin to envision what we want the future to be.

There is a difference between a concept and a vision. Fritz says: Concepts are general, visions are specific. In the conceptual phase of creativity we experiment with ideas. We are mentally "trying on new ideas" to see if they fit. One concept of healthiness may be a beautiful body, maybe someone you know who has taken care of him or herself, epitomizing your notion of what healthy means. Someone else might see healthy as being free of dis-ease, and disease. Healthy not only in body, but in mind and spirit as well. For us, Mahatma Gandhi comes to mind. Remember the physical vigor and mental agility he displayed in his later years of valiant efforts to bring freedom to the sub-continent of Asia? Metaphors (mental images and pictures) are ideal for exploring the future we haven't yet experienced but would like to influence.

Healthy Environment

Now, apply the same terms you jotted down in the last reflective exercise to think about what a healthy environment is. Do the same terms, images and ideas fit? How different is your concept of a healthy environment from your concept of healthiness?

Describe on the next few lines your concept of a healthy environment. You might want to use a metaphor or two to make your concepts more clear. Perhaps a beautiful pristine mountain stream is your metaphor for a healthy environment. Or, a market full of fresh fruits and vegetables free of diseases, not loaded with pesticides, and displayed in a clean and attractive setting. Or, children who are happy and well nourished. Or, maybe a smokestack on the edge of your community that no longer belches harmful chemicals and has become the highest flower pot in the region as a symbol of your council's commitment to sustainable development.

My concept of a healthy environment is:

Writing Future Scenarios: One Approach to Visionary

One of the more frequently used tools in visualizing what the future might become is the development of various scenarios, or descriptions, about the way our communities might turn out in the future. Peter Schwartz calls scenarios "a tool for helping us take a long view in a world of great uncertainty...stories that can help us recognize and adapt to changing aspects of our present environment."6

Writing different scenarios about the future of sustainable development, as a tool for developing local policies and programmes, is best done by those who represent a cross section of your community. In fact, the greater the diversity of thinking and values about development and the environment, the better the opportunities for forging a consensus and commitment that can be sustained over time. We will discuss in the next section about who you might involve in writing scenarios (as a means of planning for a more sustainable future through development). But for now, let's look at some of the steps decision makers take in writing alternative descriptions about their future.

(It is helpful to know that major corporations and other institutions
that worry about their own ability to be sustained (to survive in an
intensely competitive world), routinely use these methods as
strategic planning and management tools.)

Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, community and organization consultants, have been working for years to refine a process for people seeking common ground for action in organizations and communities. This process, something they call Future Search, is a large group planning meeting that brings key interested parties (stakeholders) together to work on a task-focused agenda. The meeting is based on a simple idea: if you want the community (or organization) to transform itself to move in a different direction on an issue like sustainable development, you need a process that gives "people a chance to take ownership of their past, present and future, confirm their mutual values, and commit to action plans grounded in reality."⁷

The Future Search Conference format is one approach to writing future scenarios. Over a two-day time frame, they:

focus on the past: the community's highlights and accomplishments (appreciate our history; identify trends we have experienced; explore what the past means to us);
focus on the present: current trends (understanding the forces currently having an impact on the community);
focus on the future: imagining an ideal future for the community;
discover common ground: reaching consensus on a common future and direction; and,
make future plans: through shared understanding and greater commitment to act.⁸

This is just one way to go about the process of scenario writing or what these two authors call future search. We will offer our own version in the learning tools that accompany this discussion. Without a conceptual framework that defines where your community should be going (a future vision), it won't help to develop action plans on how to get there.

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