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

A. An Introduction to Development, the Environment and Technology

The symbiotic relationship between development and environment was defined in the report submitted by the World Commission on Environment and Development to the United Nations Secretary General in 1987. The Commission, convened by Gro Harlem Brundtlandt four years earlier, defined for the first time the concept of sustainable development, linking together the state of the environment and economic achievement. The Commission was clear in its assertion that one can not be sustained or guaranteed without the other. But, there is another important factor in this critical relationship between the environment and development, the impact of technology.

Technology is at the leading edge of each of these dynamic forces. It is the link between human action and nature. However, Dieter Koenig reminds us in his article on Sustainable Development: Linking Global Environmental Change to Technology Cooperation, “technology cannot compensate for shortcomings in the process of political decision making or in mismanagement.” Nevertheless, what has come to be known as “environmentally sound technology” can be a worthy ally in your role as Guardian of the Environment.

Before we go further, it is essential to define what is meant by environmentally sound technologies, or EST. The term, technology, has acquired new meaning in recent years. For example, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines technology as encompassing both hardware and software. Under this umbrella we find not only such things as tertiary waste water treatment principles and practices (which, for the authors, is “very technical”) but also many social measures and analytical processes you employ as councillors in your everyday work to represent your constituents and the community. These “people oriented technologies” include an infinite number of possibilities you can employ as Guardian of the Environment. For example, new management systems, policy activities, consensus building efforts, scenario planning sessions with a cross section of community representatives, and the design of new types of organizations that cut across jurisdictional boundaries.

Your local elected leadership role as Guardian of the Environment will be judged, in the long run, by two interwoven criteria:

your council’s ability to carry out sustainable development policies and programmes; and
your creative and effective use of environmentally sound technologies.

The Agenda 21 Mandate

Many of you will remember the June 1992 United Nations Conference on Envi-ronment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Maybe some of you were there, repre-senting your country and its environmental interests and concerns. The conference was a defining moment in the age-old dialogue about environment and development. It produced a series of directives, action steps and mandates that focus and drive the collective efforts of the UN family of organizations well into the 21st century. From the perspective of this discussion, the conference established the terms of Local Agenda 21 Programmes the world over.

Since Agenda 21 is the foundation stone upon which we will build a case for your role as Guardian of the Environment, we will return to Rio for a moment and the importance conference delegates gave to local government initiatives in support of Agenda 21.

Because so many of the problems and solutions being addressed by Agenda 21 have their roots in local activities, the participation and cooperation of local authorities will be a determining factor in fulfilling its objectives. Local authorities construct, operate and maintain economic, social and environmental infrastructure, oversee planning processes and establish local environmental policies and regulations. As the level of governance closest to the people, they play a vital role in educating, mobilizing and responding to the public to promote sustainable development.

Agenda 21: From Concept to Reality

One of the authors had an experience as a local government chief executive that may shed some light on the set of complex, intertwined, convoluted events that sometimes determine the road to sustainable development. The experience brought citizens, councillors, state officials, a private contractor, neighboring community leaders, public service engineers and city hall staff face to face in an unfriendly confrontation. The conflict was sparked by a joint city council and state (provincial) highway department decision to remove several trees to widen an important road intersection.

Cutting down a few trees in the heart of the community would not have created so much controversy if it had not been part of an effort with larger and more lasting consequences. City council and the state highway department had decided to reconstruct two major streets running the length of the central business district of the city and convert them into a one-way traffic flow system. At that time, the state highway design standards required a certain minimum width for construction, which would mean removing a large number of trees, seriously narrowing the sidewalks for the entire length of the proposed one-way system and, generally changing the character of the city centre. There is a public university in the center of the community which generates a large number of pedestrians and creates a unique ambiance and physical environment enjoyed by all citizens. The "improvements" planned by local elected councillors and highway design engineers, who lived and worked over 100 kilometers away, quickly became a magnet for citizen concern.

A few citizens, who understood the consequences of the impending action, had testified at a council meeting early in the discussions of the proposed improvement programme. They requested the councillors to consider a redesign of the one way street system that would save many of the trees. The council expressed "sympathy" for the citizen perspective but said there was nothing they could do. After all, the state highway department had its standards. If the community wanted the state government's involvement (which, of course, translated into a valuable monetary contribution from the higher level of government) the council would have to accept the wider roadway.

The private contractor and his crew arrived early one Monday morning with chain saws to remove the trees and were surprised to find the trees were filled with citizens! And, those tree sitting citizens refused to get down from their lofty perches until the council agreed to re-open the issue for more discussion. Council held firm, quoting engineering regulations and elected leadership prerogatives.

When the council refused to established an earnest dialogue with the citizens, their constituents began to turn up the heat on the elected leaders.What began as disagreement over the fate of a few trees one early spring morning turned into a very hot summer of conflict and negotiation between the warring parties. It unearthed a wide range of environment concerns the council had been ignoring over the years.

Expanding the Dialogue

Once the council finally realized how serious the citizens were, a task force was formed to find alternative solutions to the conflict The task force represented all sides of the complex dilemma. It included representatives of the council, the city planning commission, technical experts, state and local officials drawn into the fray, the business community, the university administration and, of course, the "not so ordinary" citizens who precipitated the action. For seven long months, the chain saws remained idle while the experts, officials, business representatives, citizens and other explored alternative solutions. The citizens had tapped a much larger and more pervasive community concern about how to sustain development in that rapidly growing city without destroying the natural environment. The natural amenities of the community and surrounding environment were, in large measure, responsible for attracting new businesses and people to the area; they were not inconsequential as an economic resource.

The final task forrecommendations covered a wide range of issues and concerns, including:

a waiver of state highway standards (as many of you will recognize this is rarely an easy accomplishment);
a plan to remove fewer trees and plant new ones where preservation was not possible;
elimination of on-street parking; construction of a new parking garage to assure the business community that retail activities would not suffer;
provisions for managing solid waste and other public services within the affected area; and
a written commitment by the state highway commissioner and officials from the surrounding townships that they would rethink the design and location of a major by-pass highway that was planned for future construction.

Nearly all task force recommendations were adopted by the local council, the state highway department and surrounding local government elected leaders. The community remains economically vibrant with a continuing concern that economic growth be balanced by environmental concerns. This integrated starategy, which has assured sustainable development throughout the region, was greatly assisted when two of the protesters came down from their lofty perches in the doomed trees that early spring morning to campaign for seats on the local council in the next election. They won easily with support from a more enlightened and grateful electorate.

Environmental Guardians and Much More

The council's ultimate decision to expand the dialogue to include tree sitters and a wider community of concerned stakeholders offers several lessons for councillors in the role of Guardians of the Environment.

simple incremental decisions can have long term consequences;
policies that seem mired in technical requirements can be challenged and changed to reflect emergent concerns and new approaches;
time spent in anticipating public responses to, and consequences of, council actions can prevent future conflicts;
involving a cross section of opinion and expertise is essential to building consensus and assuring commitment to new mandates; and
the role of environmental guardian, if it to be performed successfully, will ultimately require the councillor to draw upon other roles and skills that are covered in the UNCHS (Habitat) series of training materials for councillors.

In this tree-sitting incident, the councilors were called upon to be more effective policy makers, communicators, decision makers, facilitators, and certainly better, (albeit reluctant) nagotiators. Before the final vote was taken to save the trees and to find alternative solutions to engineering design standards and a host of other constraints, the council was called upon to be power brokers in their relation to a higher level of governing processes and to be more proficient financiers and overseers (because the ultimate decisions required some long term improvements they had not originally planned).

Finally, they were called upon to don their enabler hats to assist other parties with constructing a parking garage so it wouldn't effect the city's long-term debt limitation.

Each of the councillor roles just mentioned are covered in more depth as individual topics in the UNCHS (Habitat) Training for Elected Leadership series.

Agenda 21 of the Rio document iterates the role of governance closest to the people: "They play a vital role in educating, mobilizing and responding to the public to promote sustainable development."

But there are times when the public turns the tables and educates and mobilizes its elected officials to promote sustainable development. If your constituents start to climb trees, don't say we didn't warn you!

Reflection

Take a few minutes and reflect on the role of local governments, as defined by the Rio delegates. Jot down a few ideas that define the roles your council perform in educating, mobilizing and responding to the public that could promote sustainable development?

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Review your notes on your council's role in educating, mobilizing and responding to the public. Have you taken into consideration the involveent of women, boys, and girls in your reflections about the council's role? Too often our pans and endeavors do not differentiate the unique contributions they can make as guardians of the environment.

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