Transcript Thinking Like a Watershed - Ecological

Thinking Like a Watershed Ecological governance
concepts, trends and
applications
A presentation by
Oliver M. Brandes, Associate Director
POLIS Project on Ecological Governance
University of Victoria
The challenge ahead
In a healthy society, economy always
follows ecology, and education
precedes them both
Ken Carey
Starseed
The Third Millennium, Living in the Posthistoric World
Harper, San Francisco,1991
Presentation overview
• Ecological governance
• Key water governance trends
• Thinking like a watershed and
some thoughts on the path
forward
Ecological governance
What it is NOT!
• One size fits all
– instead it must evolve in place
• Neat and tidy models
– instead it is messy and complex
• Applicable to individual sectors or industries
– instead it is about whole system change
eg must address markets, education, law and policy,
governments, planning and management, and whole
cities and communities)
Ecological governance
• Embeds environment in all levels of
decision making
• Environment not an ‘add on’ but central
• Asks how we might foster circular systems
– reducing demand on distant and local
ecosystems
With the fundamental question:
What does governance shaped by the
principles of ecological sustainability
look like?
Ecological governance - Foundations
• Economy is a subset of the ecosystem
• Biophysical limits (including water) exist
• Emphasize circular systems
– no such thing as waste - simply an input for
other processes
• Take uncertainty and complexity
seriously by managing adaptively
• Cultivate feedback loops through
decentralized power and institutions
• Develop social resilience and ensure
ecological resilience
• Reconnect humans (and communities)
to the natural world
Key water governance trends
Climate change represents a
CLEAR AND PRESENT LONG TERM
DANGER (and opportunity)
– More than just the issue of the day, week, month?
• Carbon reduction is all about Mitigation
• Water (and watersheds) is where we will feel the
impacts
 Water is all about Adaptation
– changing climate will directly impact watershed and
ecological function and therefore influences community
prosperity
Key water governance trends
Government to Governance
• Governance is more than just government
-- includes other critical actors such as
associations, universities, civil society and
business
– drivers of innovation and change
• Governance, alone, cannot correct poor
management
– yet poor governance often leads to ineffective
management and unsustainable—social,
economic and ecological—outcomes
Key water governance trends
Watersheds, catchments and basins
• Water and watersheds are the integrators of the landscape
and the source of key ecological goods and services
–
drinking water, flood control, biodiversity and food and resource
production
• Watersheds have long been recognized as the appropriate
scale for management (Dublin Principles) and are increasingly
recognized as the key “scale” for governance
… YET … no current governance model integrates
management of the terrestrial resources with
water-based management or atmospheric carbon
as a coherent ecological system.
Key water governance trends
New conception of
infrastructure
Foundation of Research
At a Watershed:
Ecological Governance
and Sustainable Water
Management in Canada
(May 2005)
Primary conclusions
Watershed Sustainability is a social—NOT a
technical—challenge
• Maintaining ecosystem health and function as the
priority
• Water conservation and changing behaviour must be
the foundation to water management
• Innovation, adaptive management and whole system
thinking is critical
• Local solutions must be allowed to develop in place - requiring senior government to move from top
down managers to facilitators of local action
• Watersheds must be managed and governed as
whole units with attention to linkages across sectors
REQUIRES…attention to governance
Where do we go from here?
Some suggestions on the path
forward to
developing water sustainability
in Canada
Guiding principles for reform
• A Conservation Ethic
– create H2O IQ and dispel the “myth of abundance”
– leave more water in the system to enhance ecological
resilience
• A Citizen-Centered Vision
– maintain community prosperity by linking the
economy and ecology through water
– entrench water as a ‘public trust’ legally and
institutionally
• Thinking Like a Watershed
– complexity and uncertainty requires adaptive
integrated thinking
– Healthy functioning watersheds must be the
foundation of our resource decision-making
Basic Roles and Responsibilities
Federal Government
•
•
•
Engage (and enforce) on Constitutional responsibilities - fisheries, navigation,First Nations, infrastructure, national
issues,international engagement, trade and export
Good Science and data -- climate change, hydro-ecology,
adaptation, water use
Support institutions and processes that “think like a
watershed” through resources and best practices and
information exchange
Provinces
•
•
•
Manage adaptively -- Ecosystem based allocations and
integrated land-water use in the face of a changing climate
Source Protection and Conservation -- as priority water
“infrastructure”
Address cumulative impacts -- by enabling “good
governance” at the watershed scale and whole system thinking