Final Report - CEECEC (CSO engagement with ecological economics)
Executive summary:
The CEECEC project arose out of a combination of concerns: growing demands from Civil society organisations (CSOs) for access to expertise in practical application of EE (EE) as a 'science of sustainability' to their work, and at the same time out of concern from within the European and international research communities that the principles and tools of Ecological economics (EE) were rather inaccessible to the general public. CEECEC aimed to build CSO capacity to engage in research in EE, encouraging cooperative research between CSOs and ecological economists for the benefit of policy-making. Key to the CEECEC approach was recognition of the large stock of practical knowledge held by CSOs on environmental-economic issues, and the combination of CSO and research efforts to co-develop language, approaches and tools for collaboration.
CEECEC met its objectives through a range of activities. These included: the identification of topics for cooperative policy research between CSOs and EE based on CSO needs and interests; capacity building activities for collaboration between CSOs and researchers specifically focusing on the Balkan region; a mapping and assessment of previous EE research used by CSOs to guide further fruitful collaboration; the design and implementation of workshops for the application of EE tools and concepts to CSO work; the development of an online handbook as a stand-alone resource for CSOs, teachers of EE and the general public; and finally, the development and trial of an online interactive EE course based on bottom up CSO experience.
Through this approach, the project has had a number of tangible societal impacts. CSOs in and outside of the CEECEC network now have a deepened interest in and greater awareness of the benefits the field offers to CSO concerns, having gained practical knowledge of key concepts and methods of the field. Partners for example, were exposed to indicators of social metabolism such as material flows, virtual water, Energy returned on input (EROI) and Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP), and of methods of economic valuation and schemes of Payment for ecosystem services (PES).
Not only were these concepts demonstrated / applied in the context of CSO case studies - partners have also been able to apply new understanding in engaging with governments and corporate actors. As time passes, we anticipate further uptake of EE tools and methods by CSOs as CEECEC partners continue to develop and build on and share new competencies throughout their networks. Concerning researchers involved in the project, close collaboration with civil society CEECEC has deepened their understanding of global environmental issues, making them aware of the wealth of 'activist knowledge', and building their abilities for future collaboration with CSOs. The broad achievements of CEECEC are in part due to the highly interactive and informative dissemination activities embedded within major European and International conferences, which have not only involved CEECEC partners and their own networks, but have also reached a large and diverse international audience of CSOs, researchers and policy makers.
Project context and objectives:
Summary description of project context and objectives
Project context
The CEECEC project arose out of a combination of concerns. There were growing demands from members of CSOs (organisations defined in this project as not for profit, not representative of commercial interests, non-governmental organisations pursuing the common purpose of sustainable development in the public interest) for access to expertise and practical methods for applying EE as a 'science of sustainability' to their work, and at the same time there is concern from within the European and international research communities that the principles and tools of EE remain rather inaccessible to the general public.
EE: a transdisciplinary field
EE is a trans-disciplinary field that overlaps with industrial ecology, environmental/resource economics, agro-ecology, environmental history, human ecology, and so-called 'sustainability science'. Over the past twenty years the field has grown tremendously.
The 'post - normal' approach
As a 'post-normal' science (PNS) EE asserts that expert opinion is sometimes insufficient and the facts must come from an extended peer community of stakeholders (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1994), One example of the application of a PNS approach could be drawn from one of our partners' current research in Argentina, where GEPAMA-UBA investigated the resistance to glyphosate developed by a strand of aleppo sorghum (a weed) that invades soy bean plantations. There was a debate on the threat that this represents to soybean planters and exporters (and international trade in soybeans and bio-diesel), and on the means to prevent or mitigate such damage. In the face of uncertainty, some argue in favour of the use of still more chemicals or still 'more genes' (the pesticide and the transgenic threadmill), while others point out that the threat of hybridisation or genetic mutation in weeds had always existed but has now increased.
Advancing environmental science
With its post-normal science approach, and its reliance on a physical view of the economy, the field of EE made contributions to the advancement of social and environmental analyses. These include the debate on the dematerialisation of the economy as an indicator of progress in the decoupling between economic growth and environmental degradation, definitions of weak and strong sustainability, the concepts of EROI and HANPP, and the development of scenarios for dealing with uncertainty and complexity. EE therefore approaches issues of international trade differently from neo-classical economics.
Increasing research relevance
EE, with its many concepts from ecology and from economics, is a heavy diet for any CSO organisation involved in everyday pressing problems. However there was a need for two-way communication on these important issues between academics and CSOs, and while EE made significant inroads into including non-academic communities into its analyses, its goal of translating research findings into direct action for solving problems met only limited success.
CSO demands for EE research
CSOs themselves often have identifiable needs for research activities. In fact, a primary motivation for the CEECEC proposal was the calls from CSOs for capacity building and training to investigate issues that require the expert advice of ecological economists. European CSOs were increasingly looking to the frameworks, methods and tools of EE for solutions to the environmental and social challenges posed in their day to day work.
Scientific and social convergence
As a field explicitly concerned with the interplay between economic, environmental and social issues, EE is increasingly drawing the attention of members of both scientific and civil society communities. One concept from EE that has been successfully mainstreamed into civil society discourse is that of the 'ecological footprint' (Rees and Wackernagel, 1994). CSOs worldwide have begun using this index, and marking the day each year when humans exceed the earth's so-called annual capacity for regeneration. The ecological footprint is of course itself subject to scientific scrutiny, but there is no doubt about its glittering success as an instrument for communicating concern about the environment to the public.
Preparing the ground: Exploring opportunities and addressing obstacles
Successful collaborative engagement between CSOs and ecological economists is increasingly and mutually regarded as critical. There was then a clear need for building the capacity of environmental CSOs to understand EE, and to find practical ways of applying its concepts, methods, tools and indicators to their work. In order for any such efforts to bear fruit however, a range of obstacles must be addressed. From the civil society perspective, impediments to increasing collaboration with EE stem from resource limitations (in terms of time and money) that preclude expanding or shifting organisational interests beyond programme delivery to encompass environmental, social and economic policy analysis. Just as importantly, exposure to the fundamental theoretical frameworks of the science, not to mention access to experts themselves has also been limited. As a new and evolving field the number of trained ecological economists, especially those experienced in working with CSOs to achieve mutual goals, is limited.
Bridging the disciplinary divide
In addition there are communication issues characteristic of the 'disciplinary divide' between science and civil society. The scientific community is characterised by linguistic, cultural and institutional rigidities that have served science well but have excluded wider society from being informed about, or informing its activities. The need for academic disciplines to be perceived as legitimate means evolving highly technocratic language and jargon and working from precise and narrow definitions.
Project objectives:
In this context, CEECEC aimed to build CSO capacity to engage in research in EE, and to encourage cooperative research between CSOs and academic ecological economists for the benefit of policy-making. Key to the CEECEC approach was the combination of CSO and research efforts to co-develop language, approaches and tools for collaboration, and the sharing of responsibilities for leadership and dissemination across the project. Capacity building of course cannot succeed as a purely theoretical pursuit, therefore this project built upon the large stock of 'activist knowledge' held by CSOs on environmental-economic issues, translating and shaping it to transmit and illustrate the usefulness and practical application of EE. To date, academic research has tried to demonstrate its practicality, but in rather hermetic language. It was therefore a goal of CEECEC to introduce common languages that would eventually bear fruit in the policy arena. In broad terms then, this project sought to:
- improve CSO access to knowledge of the theoretical frameworks of EE and practical applications for CSO agendas;
- improve CSO capacity to participate in research through methodological capacity-building activities to enable the translation of their knowledge, concerns and agendas into research questions and subsequently into successful research proposals;
- increase awareness amongst ecological economists of CSO practical knowledge and of the most pressing research questions of CSOs and types of research use by CSOs to promote their agendas;
- increase ecological economists' or sustainability scientists' ability to communicate key messages vis-à-vis CSO interests and concerns in understandable terms without over simplification;
- promote effective two-way communication channels to enable the public to engage with EE, and EE to engage with the public in collaborative research.
Project results:
Main results
The CEECEC workplan was made up of 8 integrated Work packages (WPs), the significant results of which are outlined in the following pages.
Identification of issues for future research initiatives
The objectives here were to identify and document key issues and topics across a range of topics of sustainable development policy research (including energy, water, mining, agriculture, forestry, trade, urban waste) for future CSOs and EE cooperative research. These were issues of burning concern at the time to the CSOs in the project, and have remained so some 2 years later. The first task involved the initial presentation by CSOs of topics of interest for collaborative research, using a case study approach with ecological economists. This presentation took place at the CEECEC kick -off meeting in Paris on April 17 2008. All CSO partners presented 1-2 topics for collaborative research.
To develop the topics in more detail and refine the proposed research questions, partners agreed that a more structured approach to cooperation was necessary. To facilitate this process, CEECEC partners developed and agreed on the use of a framework for the shaping of case studies.
Significant results:
Improved CSO/research communication and cooperation
The application of this framework enabled clearer communication between CSOs and researchers and prepared the ground for the joint exploration of a wide range of topics at a necessarily deeper level. It also helped to shape the workshops for practical applications of EE tools to CSO work by providing an indication of which EE concepts and tools would be of greatest relevance to CSO needs and interests. Furthermore, many of these topics would go on to form the content of the online EE toolkit and online course. In effect, this framework forced partners to reflect upon, reveal and negotiate realistic expectations for the collaborative relationships that lay ahead, thus becoming a cornerstone of the entire process of work as it evolved throughout CEECEC.
Broad range of topics identified
Meanwhile topics directly from CEECEC partners were supplemented with others that were identified at project dissemination activities. For example, at the Nairobi workshop at the biennial 'International society for EE' conference at UNEP in Kenya in August 2008, representatives of Kenyan CSOs were invited in advance to take part in a 'live'EE session. Hadley Becha of the East African Wildlife Association (EAWA) spoke here on a conflict involving sugar and bio-fuel production in the Tana Delta that threatens a fragile wetland ecosystem, and is set to increase the HANPP in the area. Also, in Ljubljana at the biennial conference of the 'European society for EE' on June 30 2009, two Slovenian CSOs were invited to present and discuss with ecological economists conflicts in light pollution, transport and nuclear power generation that they were working on. All of the above mentioned topics feature in the final report, 'From activism to policy research', which spans 17 topics including: forestry, waste management, protected areas management, corporate accountability/liability, transport infrastructure, mining, development aid and natural disasters, energy production, watershed protection and payments for ecosystem services. The report is accessible to the general public at http://www.ceecec.net/reports/.
Strategising for CSO / EE engagement in Balkans
The objective in this case was to survey and assess CSO / EE collaboration in the Balkans, as well as civil society trends, in order to strategise for future research initiatives between CSOs and ecological economists in the region. The rationale for this activity was the absence of knowledge of the field of EE in the Balkans amongst researchers (very few members of the European Society for EE, for instance) and CSOs in general, and a certain distance between Balkan and other European CSOs. This first step involved the building of a network by lead partner Endemit, who developed a survey to gather information of the range and type of environmental conflicts CSOs in the Balkan region were working on. The network encompassed CSOs from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Serbia, and once the survey had been translated, it was sent to Focal point organisations (FPOs) for distribution. FPOs were designated by Endemit within each country as those best placed within the Balkan network to distribute surveys to locally active CSOs. Once filled, the surveys (more than 30) were returned to the FPOs who then created short reports on the state of CSO concerns in their countries. These reports were passed on to Endemit for translation back into English, and for analysis.
Significant results:
Focus on local CSO activity
The surveys were used to draw out specific examples of current, highly relevant work taking place within grassroots CSOs on environmental conflicts in the Balkan region. These examples came from organisations with a range of interests, capacities, expertise and resource bases, and were shaped into case studies that were embedded in the latest data gathered by Endemit on the state of the environment, and an assessment of local legal, and institutional contexts. The final report therefore created a unique 'snapshot' of the state of the environment and active CSO concerns in the region. Then, based on this snapshot the report identifies specific opportunities for collaborative EE research based on CSO needs and interests, making it of interest to CSOs as well as researchers interested in the Balkan region. The report, entitled 'Environmental conflicts and issues in south-eastern Europe: Possible collaboration between CSOs and ecological economists' is available on the CEECEC website (www.ceecec.net/reports/) in English and Serbian.
Broadened CSO networks and policy outreach
As a result of this work, in addition to gathering valuable data, Endemit was able to create a new network of CSOs in southern-eastern Europe working on environmental issues, expanding their contacts throughout the Balkan region. In highlighting the work of a broad spectrum of environmentally concerned CSOs, this report exposed the issues within it to other CSOs in the region and beyond, and to a wider European, and international audience. Furthermore, civil society participation in this endeavour meant that the knowledge of EE was increased amongst involved CSOs, most of which had never heard of the field of EE. Taking part therefore increased the capacities of these organisations for being involved in such research.
The report has been disseminated widely throughout the CEECEC network, through Balkan civil society via the FPOs, through the networks of The Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), and at a well-attended workshop attended by ecological economists and activists in Ljubljana at the ESEE biennial conference in July 2009. It was also launched in Serbian policy circles on September 28, 2010 at a special event held for representatives of Public Enterprise for Forest Management 'Srbija Sume', the Serbian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia as well as to the Managers of Serbian national parks. Furthermore, the Report has been sent to the Serbian Regional Environmental Centre, local governments and their environmental departments, the Serbian Agency for Environmental Protection and to environmental journalists. In Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT), ICTA UAB's next project building on CEECEC, the focus on this area will be expanded through Ze Zemiata, a Bulgarian CSO active on mining conflicts in the region.
Mapping and assessment of previous EE research for CSOs
Here the objective was to conduct a mapping of previous EE research used by CSOs in terms of its 1) effectiveness for achieving CSO goals as described vis-à-vis the research, and 2) relevance to current CSO research concerns. This report set out to achieve its objectives by laying its foundation on the work of CEECEC, starting by extracting information from the glossary of EE concepts and the case studies developed by partners, project partners' own other experiences and then complementing this information with examples of the CSO use of EE from a broad variety of other sources.
Significant results:
An innovative mapping exercise
As a result of the overview of CSO experience with EE to date, it was possible to map how collaborative research between CSOs and EE researchers has been evolving. This was possible through the categorisation of emergent areas of work:
- resource accounting tools, mainly biophysical indicators such as ecological footprint, HANPP, EROI, material flow analysis, resource efficiency and virtual water are included;
- national well-being accounts, including efforts to measure well-being and progress towards sustainable development, be it adopting economic approaches, subjective measures of well-being or the use of composite indexes;
- cost benefit analysis (CBA) and economic valuation, including the application of economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis tools for the work of CSO, contingent valuation, travel cost methods, and applications for the valuation of ecosystem services;
- multiple languages of valuation, including CSO use of approaches where multiple languages of valuation are expressed and taken into account in policy processes. This includes the application of tools like multicriteria analysis, scenarios and visioning and community participation exercises;
- ecological distribution conflicts, in cases of CSO action dealing with the application of concepts such as environmental liabilities, corporate accountability, ecological debt, climate justice, unequal ecological exchange are included;
- policy instruments, including CSO initiatives to foster or to criticise the application of environmental policy instruments such as carbon trade, payments for ecosystem services, environmental taxes and certification schemes;
- co-management of natural resources including CSO work in fostering initiatives linked with community based management and joint forest management.
In addition to highlighting trends in collaborative research, the significance of this exercise lay in the fact that it helped to place CEECEC and the work of its members in a much wider context of other experiences of use of EE approaches and tools.
Informed guidance for future collaboration
Based on the mapping exercise, the report goes on to offer key insights to guide future cooperative research with and for CSO. As such, it has been disseminated through CEECEC CSO and research networks, and is available to the general public online, at http://www.ceecec.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/WP5-CEECEC_FINAL-REPORT.pdf . There are plans to develop the final into an academic publication for submission to the journal EE. This will ensure that this report reaches a broad international group. The report will also be of value by way of providing an introduction to the book being prepared for publication with Earthscan in the United Kingdom.
Development and pilot of workshops for practical applications of EE tools to CSO work: A case study approach
The objective was to develop and pilot workshops for practical applications of EE tools to CSO work using a case study approach. Two workshops were planned and held in Vienna Austria, onsite at CEECEC partner IFF-KLU's Institute of Social Ecology (IFF) in February 2008 , and another in Rome, Italy and A Sud's Centro di Documentazione sui Conflitti Ambientali (CDCA) in June 2008.
Significant results:
'Hands-on' CSO exposure to EE
As a result of these workshops a number of key EE tools and methods were made accessible to a CSO audience. This was possible through, the development of innovative presentation materials and scheduled discussion time for tackling any needed clarifications. For instance, new, more accessible materials were developed by researchers on how to explain calculations of HANPP, an indicator of human impact on biomass availability for other species) to a lay audience, and how to make HANPP relevant to the study of environmental conflicts by activists.
Better research understanding of (southern) CSO concerns
Second, CSO presentations and discussion time meant researchers were better able to understand the issues at the heart of CSO conflicts or development projects, which enabled researchers to tailor the application of EE tools better to individual case studies in working group sessions. The process overall meant gains were made for the development of a method for 'talking across disciplines', and also across practices (academic vs. activism). There was of course also room for much teaching and learning from CSO to CSO.
Materials development
Other practical benefits were also to be found in contributions to the progress and quality of case study drafting for the Handbook and course (5. and 6. below), as the workshops provided time and space for multiple focused, in-person, small group discussions between activists and researchers on the practical applicability of EEtools to CSO case studies.
1. PES in India from the Bottom-Up CSE willingness to pay, opportunity cost, Coasian bargaining, environmental services, transaction costs, community property rights, CDM.
2. Participatory Forest Management in Mendha Lekha, India
CSE biomass economy, Gross Nature Product, GDP of the poor, joint forest management, watershed management, social capital, self -regulation, consensual democracy, community rights, non-monetary economy, livelihood security, rights-based approach.
3. Mineral Extraction and Conflict in Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador, Acción Ecológica copper mining, Shuar communities, environmentalism of the poor, biodiversity hot spot, ILO Convention 169, Social Multicriteria Methods, languages of valuation, inconmensurability of values.
4. Manta-Manaos Multi-modal Transport Infrastructure in Ecuador: Nature, Capital and Plunder Acción Ecológica Social metabolism, material flows, transport infrastructure, local knowledge, resource extraction, Chinese export markets, free trade, IIRSA.
5. Waste Crisis in Campania, Italy A Sud hazardous waste, Ecomafia, cost shifting, PNS, 'Zero waste', incinerators, Lawrence Summers principle, DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts, Responses), corruption, EROI.
6. High Speed Transport Infrastructure (TAV) in Italy A Sud Transport and energy, material flows, participatory democracy, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Multi Criteria Evaluation, High speed, NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), activist knowledge.
7. Local Governance and Environment Investments in Hiware Bazar, India CSE environmental investments, grazing rights, community resource management, water harvesting, National rural employment guarantee Act (NREGA), institutional innovations, property rights, virtual water, livelihood security.
8. Nautical Tourism in the Lastovo Islands Nature Park, Croatia. Sunce nautical tourism, marine biodiversity, depopulation, landscape value, property rights, protected area management, carrying capacity, resilience, public participation, willingness to pay, eco-tourism management.
9. Local Communities and Management of Protected Areas in Serbia (Djerdap) Endemit Protected areas, dams and hydroelectricity, depopulation, co-management, eco-tourism, forest economics, local livelihood opportunities, ecosystem services, Krutilla's rule, cost-benefit analysis, trans-boundary cooperation.
10. Mechanisms in Support of the Creation and Consolidation of Protected Areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil: The Potential of REDD and Legal Reserve Compensation REBRAF biodiversity valuation, ecological economic zoning, avoided deforestation, carbon trade, payment for environmental services, opportunity cost, institutional innovations, stakeholder participation, public policy formulation.
11. Forestry and Communities in Cameroon CED-FoE Industrial logging, property rights, community forests, co-management, community interests, commodity chains, ecologically unequal exchange, cost shifting, corporate accountability, corruption, wood certification, fair trade, consumer blindness, languages of valuation, FLEGT.
12. Environmental Justice and Ecological Debt in Belgium: The UMICORE case VODO ecological debt, lead pollution, manufacturing of uncertainty, environmental justice, popular epidemiology, post-normal science, environmental externalities, corporate accountability/ liability, value of human life, discount rate, greenwashing.
13. Aid, Social Metabolism and Social Conflict in the Nicobar Islands IFF-UKL humanitarian aid, material and energy flows, working time, property rights, community ownership, subsistence economy, natural disasters.
14. Land use and water disputes in the Tana Delta, Kenya, ICTA UAB- Nature Kenya wetlands, land-grabbing, irrigation, pastoralists, property rights, biofuels, EROI, HANPP, virtual water, biodiversity.
A blueprint for future collaboration
The initial framework for case study development used in earlier stages of CEECEC, a description of the collaborative case study drafting process, and some key elements from the workshops in Vienna and Rome form the basis of a report entitled 'EE and CSOs: A blueprint for collaboration'. Available on the CEECEC website (http://www.ceecec.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Blueprint-FINAL.pdf) this report illustrates how the collaborative processes employed in designing the CEECEC workshops succeeded in bridging the gaps in expertise and languages that existed between the two distinct realms of academia and activism in order to co-produce new knowledge, providing a practical template for future two-way capacity building exercises between CSOs and ecological economists.
Development and pilot of online EE toolkit
The objective here was to develop and pilot an online EE'toolkit', a Handbook made up of collaboratively written chapters on case studies illustrating and contextualising EE tools and methods, and a glossary. The chapters and glossary were also core materials of the online EE course (see 6. below).These materials were integrated into the website dedicated to the online course and piloted as course materials, before being formatted into the Handbook, a downloadable online e-book.
Significant results:
The handbook - A stand-alone resource based on CSO experience
The handbook was launched officially at the ISEE Biennial conference in Bremen, in August 2010 and posted on the CEECEC website (www.ceecec.net/handbook/) for public comment. The Handbook contains 14 chapters covering a range of issues, all based on CSO needs and interests. These chapters have been written by and with CSOs through an EE lens, embedded with EE concepts and tools designed to illustrate the practical application of such tools in a CSO context. The end product, this CEECEC Handbook: EE from the Bottom-Up, is available as an open access, stand-alone toolkit on the project website for teaching and learning EE through front-line activist experience and knowledge.
A teaching/ learning tool for civil society, academia and policy
The chapters deal with high-stakes environmental conflicts and issues, and while the contents are mainly geared to environmental justice organisations and to civil society, they will also be most useful to academics researching and teaching in the sustainability sciences, and policy makers working to promote sustainability at different levels. The glossary and its entries to which the case studies are hyperlinked, was also written by CEECEC partners to complement the case study chapters by explaining in greater depth the concepts presented within them. Glossary entries were produced by drawing upon knowledge already in the public domain (on the internet and in other publications in EE and political ecology), and in some cases, on the original research of the authors. They cover topics (in alphabetical order) from access and use rights to well-being.
A forthcoming publication
The handbook (and the glossary separately) is now available in English and in French language versions online. The response to this resource has been very positive, illustrated by praise from respected academic peers and activists alike (see some of these comments in the text box below). It is foreseen that the Handbook will remain online as an open access resource for a long time. Meanwhile, In Spring 2010 the CEECEC coordinators were approached by the publishing house Earthscan (London), specialised in environmental issues, and conversations initiated on how to turn the CEECEC Handbook into a book that would be called 'EE from the ground up', based on the handbook materials. This book will be published (it is hoped) at the end of 2011, and due acknowledgement made to the CEECEC project and to FP7 SiS funding. It is foreseen that new chapters will be added, all of them products of collaborative research between academics and CSOs.
Comments on CEECEC handbook
From Richard Norgaard, University of California Berkeley
Four decades ago, as the environmental movement was heating up in the United States, The Environmental Handbook: Prepared for the first national environmental teach-in was published by Ballantine and friends of the Earth (edited by Garrett De Bell, 1970). This eclectic collection of critical information for environmental activists could soon be found in students' back packs and on the desks of bureaucrats and executives. It sold very well, perhaps out-selling Bibles in the U.S. that year. The CEECEC handbook is just what is needed for the times, down-to-earth documentation of how to fight bad economics with good economics, how to fight economic interests with an economics that empowers the public's interest in social justice and environmental sustainability. Much as the original Environmental Handbook was assembled to inform and expand the power of the grass roots, this Handbook provides what is needed now: documentation of successful and on-going efforts from the bottom up to reshape the future along with a glossary of key concepts that challenge business as usual.
Pushpam Kumar, Chief Economist United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
The scope and range of ideas dealt with in this Handbook are of a gigantic scale. This book represents the first serious effort by an international group of researchers, under the direction of one of the finest ecological economists of our time- Prof Joan Martinez Alier, to enrich and validate the approaches, frameworks and methods of EE. This has been done in a true tradition of interdisciplinarity, with the application of a range of innovative approaches, from social metabolic accounting to valuation to participation. This book represents a truly remarkable effort and will be a delight to read for practitioners in and outside of the academic fraternity.
Andrew Stirling, SPRU, University of Sussex
The authors are to be congratulated for an initiative that is path-breaking in a number of ways. First, because the process through which this analysis has been produced is highly innovative - with potentially significant implications for wider research practice. Although the language of 'multi', 'inter' and 'transdisciplinarity' are much used, work often falls short of the true promise. In this pioneering example of what the European Commission calls 'cooperative research', the authors have genuinely succeeded in articulating very positively a diversity of often-conflicting disciplinary and societal perspectives around pressing social and environmental policy challenges around the world. The results show what can really be achieved when academics work in a more collegial and symmetrical way with CSOs - opening up different ways of framing problems and giving a voice to often-marginalised interests.
A second reason why this analysis is path-breaking is because of its scope and depth. A coherent set of central ideas and approaches are explored through an impressive array of empirical cases studies. These span a wide range of contrasting industrial sectors and socio-ecological contexts, extending across both northern and southern global settings. The emphasis throughout is on international, environmental and institutional interconnections. The breadth of analysis also extends beyond the often-narrow disciplinary domains, to encompass often-neglected dimensions of culture and power, as well as economic, biophysical and technological dynamics.
A third feature that sets this analysis apart is its pragmatic engagement with pressing real-world problems. Eschewing elaborate procedures to confirm or falsify abstract disciplinary principles or frameworks for their own sake, the focus is repeatedly on the development of practical methods and approaches. This amplifies the general applicability of the final results, and its transferability to a host of disparate problems and settings that intersperse those that are addressed directly here. As a result, the final product should find an enthusiastic readership among policy makers, lobbyists and activists and environmental managers in business, as among academic researchers in the range of disciplines addressed: economics and political science, as well as various areas of environmental science and policy analysis.
Development and pilot of interactive online EE and environmental policy courses for civil society
Objective:
The objective was to develop and pilot an interactive online EE course for CSOs and the general public, based on case studies. The course, which ran from April to July 2010, was centred on online lectures with audio, but included other activities. Each week of the course was structured as follows, featuring:
-An introduction: Introductory slide show. This was a flash presentation that introduced the topic, and key issues and concepts used in the lecture.
-A lecture: The lecture was implemented via Flash slides with audio, and lasted from 45 minutes to an hour.
-A task 1: All students were required to take part in a discussion forum in a virtual classroom.
-A case study: Students were then instructed to read the case study, referring to the glossary for more in depth explanations of terms, concepts and tools.
-A task 2: An assignment in which students could apply their new knowledge. The questions were structured in such a way that students could illustrate their understanding by drawing on their own knowledge and experience.
-Lecture design was shared between researchers and the CSO partners who had co-written the case studies at the centre of each lecture, giving their seal of approval or expressing concerns regarding the final product. There were 12 lectures in all, covering the following topics:
1. Aid, social metabolism and social conflict in the Nicobar Islands.
2.Let them eat sugar: Life and Livelihood in Kenya's Tana Delta.
3.Forestry and communities in Cameroon.
4.The waste crisis in Campania, Italy.
5.Environmental justice and ecological debt in Belgium: The UMICORE case.
6.Participatory forest management in Mendha Lekha, India.
7.'Mechanisms in support of the creation and consolidation of protected areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil: The potential of REDD and legal reserve compensation and PES in India from the bottom-up'.
8. Nautical tourism in the Lastovo Islands Nature Park, Croatia.
9.High-speed transport infrastructure (TAV) in Italy.
10.Local communities and management of protected areas in Serbia.
11.Local governance and environment investments in Hiware Bazar, India.
12.Ecological distributive conflicts on commodity frontiers: Mining and transport in Ecuador.
Significant results:
Cooperative materials development and teaching
The lectures formed the core of the course but it should be pointed out that not only academics were involved in delivering the lectures, but many CSO partners as well, in keeping with the spirit of CEECEC which values and recognises that CSOs hold large stocks of knowledge useful to the research community. For instance Supriya Singh of CSE India delivered 3 lectures, one on environmental investments in Hiware Bazaar, Forestry in Mendha Lekha, and PES in Himachal Pradesh. Biljana Macura, of Endemit Ecological Society (also a trained biologist) delivered the lecture on Management of Protected Areas in Djerdap NP, Serbia. Ivonne Yanez of Accion Ecologica was deeply involved in the design of the lectures on Ecuador, and Nick Meynen of VODO assisted closely in the development of Lea Sebastien's lecture on Ecological Debt of the UMICORE corporation in Belgium.
Practical, relevant and accessible learning
Participating as students were 13 individuals from CEECEC network CSOs, with an additional 12 participants chosen in response to calls for volunteers sent out by the CEECEC newsletter and announcements through partners' and other websites. Over 140 expressions of interest in taking the course were received, and participants were chosen to achieve a balance between male and female, Northern and Southern, and CSO and non-CSO (others were students, professors or policy researchers/advisors from local to international levels of government) learners. Students also had the option of submitting assignments, the most challenging part of the course, in their native language. Many students took advantage of this opportunity, submitting assignments for assessment by tutors in French, Spanish and Portuguese. At the end of the course students submitted detailed feedback on their experience.
The Final product
The CEECEC network and coordinators are now in possession of a piloted, ready-made online resource for teaching and learning EE from the ground-up. The next stage will be to find a way of continuing to run the course for the benefit of CSOs and the general public at a cost that is not prohibitive to achieving ongoing enrolment. Interest has been expressed by several established institutes in running the course, which is set to start again under EJOLT, ICTA - UAB's next project. The Coordinators are therefore now considering the best way to bring the course forward to a wider audience at an affordable cost.
Potential impact:
The goal of CEECEC was to enable CSOs to engage and lead collaborative research with ecological economists. The overall focus was not on theory but on case study learning, whereby CSO and academics identified and explored key issues for research on environmental and sustainability matters based on CSO needs and interests. While societal impacts of the activities undertaken in this project will take time to reveal themselves as CSOs begin to apply new learning to their work, the process of developing the case studies for the Handbook, and participation in the course has clearly led to a transfer of EE knowledge and capabilities to CSOs within CEECEC, and well beyond through the participation of non-network CSOs in the course, and the wide dissemination of the handbook as a teaching/learning tool.
1. Deepened interest in the science and applications of EE amongst CSOs and the general public.
Within the CEECEC network, the project initially stimulated CSO interest in the field through work identifying issues for future cooperative research based on CSO needs and interests. The case study development process deepened knowledge of the tools and methods, as did participation in the online course, in which a broad range of EE concepts and tools featured, along with opportunities for their discussion and practical application. As understanding of the field and capacity to engage with it grew amongst CEECEC civil society partners, interest in the field spread to the general public through the communication channels of project (and external) CSOs, via their websites, newsletters and parallel events. For example, in developing their case studies, CSOs, Accion Ecologica, Endemit, Rebraf, A Sud and VODO actively engaged with local communities, holding workshops, conferences and other events in order to explore the issues at stake, and in so doing explaining the role and relevance of EE in CEECEC.
The general public was also reached through CSO partners' press releases and numerous other publications designed for their constituencies, which included local community organisations and individual members of the public. Interest was also stimulated through major dissemination events embedded within international conferences to which members of local civil society were invited. The project website too has been instrumental, providing access to reports highlighting the benefits of activist/EE collaboration, and to the online Handbook, an open access resource for teaching/learning EE through CSO experience.
2. Increased uptake of environmental indicators as analytical instruments for CSOs examining environmental issues
The CEECEC workshops on practical applications of EE tools and methods to CSO work were instrumental in developing knowledge of indicators amongst CEECEC partners, and as a result, many have been successfully introduced and explored through the development of chapters for the Handbook. For example, the Manta Manaos case study by Accion Ecologica introduces the concept of social metabolism and material flow indicators. EROI an indicator of energy returned on energy input, features in A Sud's case study on the waste conflict in Campania, pointing to the negative EROI in the combustion of waste there.
Another example comes from the case study on the Tana Delta in Kenya, a chapter developed by ICTA UAB in cooperation with non-CEECEC members, the East African Wildlife Society and Nature Kenya, illustrating the usefulness of HANPP, virtual water and EROI in the context of plans for bio-fuel production in the delta. In the online course students were given the opportunity to speculate on how they might use these tools within their work on environmental issues. As knowledge of the Handbook continues to proliferate, we expect further knowledge of the concept of social metabolism and of these indicators to impact on CSO work.
3. Increased capability of environmental CSOs to understand and contribute to discussions on economic valuation and payment for environmental services, by contributing their own critiques and suggestions for further research.
Tools for economic valuation and schemes for payments for environmental services were covered in depth in the CEECEC workshops as they were of great interest to our CSO partners. Economic valuation was seen as useful for conveying important messages in a language (monetary value) easily understandable to the general public and decision makers. As such CBA featured in the case studies of Sunce, Endemit and A Sud. Sunce highlighted the practicality of contingent valuation and travel-cost method in developing plans for sustainable tourism in the Lastovo Islands in Croatia. Endemit of Serbia, analysed the costs and benefits arising from the construction of a large dam at the Iron Gates on the Danube, arguing that if a CBA had been carried out in line with John Krutilla's rule (Krutilla, 1967), the non-use option value of keeping an irreplaceable natural area with a rich cultural heritage intact would have been taken into account in the decision making process. A Sud also refers the use of CBA in a conflict over the plans to build a tunnel for High Speed Transport Infrastructure (TAV) in Italy. They cite the results of an earlier CBA showing that the proposed new line is not the most advantageous alternative to the existing railway and road transport system.
On the topic of PES, key lessons for CEECEC CSOs in fact came from the case studies of two CSO partners actively using PES approaches in their work, CSE (India) and REBRAF (Brazil). Both case studies feature in the Handbook, available in the public domain, and both CSO staff members shared the teaching of the unit on PES in the online course, providing the opportunity for deeper exploration of PES related issues. Rebraf's case study on REDD was in fact used to empower smaller CSOs in the region with similar interests in establishing REDD schemes, and REBRAF is now involved in a new policy mix project, an FP-7 funded offshoot of CEECEC that aims to transfer knowledge of economic and command and control instruments for biodiversity conservation in Latin America to European contexts.
4. Deepened understanding of concepts and tools for addressing Southern environmental issues and environmental pressures/conflicts facing the South on issues such as climate change, trade, bio-piracy, and conservation of biodiversity.
Southern issues featured strongly in the CEECEC programme, with 5 Southern partner organisations and 2 Northern ones working on North-South issues. Case studies in the handbook focused on several key concepts' and tools particularly relevant to the South. The Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Cameroon for example developed a case study on industrial logging there, stressing the importance of the concept of ecologically unequal exchange. Ecological debt and environmental liability concepts are also present in the case of the Mining Enclave of the Cordillera del Cóndor, by Acción Ecológica. The concept of ecological debt has moved from activism to science and public policy. For example, in Copenhagen in December 2009 at least 20 heads of government or ministers explicitly mentioned the ecological debt (or climate debt) in their speeches, some using also the loaded word 'reparations'.
In CEECEC we have accompanied this movement because of the strong involvement of some partners (Acción Ecológica, ASud) over the years in campaigns on the ecological debt, and building on its involvement in CEECEC, CED Cameroon has formed a working group of lecturers (political scientists, economists, sociologists) and students (all together 21 persons so far), to begin discussions on degrowth from a Cameroonian and central African perspective, exploring what it means for forest management, and for natural resources exploitation, especially oil and mining in the region, with the idea that the North should not increase further its ecological debts.
The concepts of ecological debts and liabilities are relevant also for the internal policy of the EU where the 'Environmental liability' directive entered into force in April 2004, though not all countries have yet enacted the corresponding internal legislation. A final example of how Southern issues have been addressed in CEECEC comes from the case of Mendha Lekha, by CSE in India. Mendha Lekha, a small tribal village in Maharashtra represents a success story in community resource management, and the CSE used the concepts of 'the GDP of the Poor', or 'Gross Nature Product' to demonstrate how villagers have prospered and at the same time managed to keep their economy relatively free of monetisation. These issues not only featured in the Handbook and course, but also in CSO presentations at European and International dissemination events attended by accomplished EE researchers and the general public. They are also highlighted in reports available on the website, such as 'From activism to policy research: Key issues and topics for future collaborative sustainability research', and 'CSOs and EE: Mapping and assessing CSO engagement with the field', and in the widely disseminated video 'Hiware bazaar millionaires', which was screened at international conferences and on the project and partners' websites. Our Indian partner CSE will use this and other materials generated by CEECEC in a new online course (agenda for wurvival) it is developing to be run in July of 2011.
5.Increased capability of environmental CSOs to act as intermediaries between governments/corporate actors and other CSOs or community organisations facing conflicts over use of resources and sinks.
Armed with the methods and tools of EE gained through the workshops, Handbook development and online course, CSOs in the CEECEC network have, during the course of the project initiated discussions with policy makers and corporate actors in pursuit of their organisational goals. VODO was enabled to approach UMICORE, initiating a dialogue with the company's President on the existence of an outstanding ecological debt toward communities neighbouring the company's plant in Hoboken, Belgium. Endemit has initiated a dialogue with policy makers including the Serbian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, and the Managers of Serbian national parks on the possibilities for co-management of the natural resources within Djerdap NP that will directly benefit the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the region.
Sunce as well is hoping to influence the development of a sustainable tourism industry through the use of economic policy instruments in the Lastovo Islands through cooperation with the relevant government ministries, institutes, planning departments and local municipalities, and is now expanding their work in this area to the island of Hvar, in the region of Split. As more CSOs become aware of the potential offered by EE methods and tools to their work, we anticipate an increase in this type of activity.
6. Improved CSO understanding of social metabolic approaches such as life-cycle analysis, enabling enhanced research capabilities regarding consumption issues and their environmental impact.
Social metabolic approaches were a key feature of the CEECEC program, as they are to the field. As such they were emphasised in the workshops in Vienna, which were hosted by Klagenfurt University's Institute for Social Ecology, home of leading European research on social metabolism. The importance of these approaches is reflected in the chapters of the Handbook. For example, social metabolism appears in the first chapter of the Handbook, in the context of the Manta-Manaos project for furthering exports from Amazonia towards China. Social metabolic processes are also central to A Sud's work on the TAV conflict, which directly questions the need to exponentially increase the movement of goods, preferring instead more localised forms of consumption and decision making.
Similarly the CED chapter on forestry in Cameroon has integrated a social metabolic approach in its case study, examining how high levels of resource consumption in the North have led to environmental destruction and the maintenance of unsustainable exploitation patterns in the context of industrial logging in that country. This chapter introduced the concept of 'consumer blindness' in the context of the discussion of (falsely) certified wood exports. These chapters are all now in the public domain in the Handbook for the benefit of other CSOs and the general public. The topic of social metabolism of course featured in the online course as well, offering participants the opportunity to reflect on social metabolic approaches (such as material and energy flow accounting - MEFA) how they could be applied to the investigation of sustainability issues in a case relevant to students, and what results would be expected from doing so.
7.Increased CSO understanding of key EE concepts such as complexity, uncertainty, and resilience, concepts valuable in policy discussions and when implementing the precautionary principle in a post-normal scientific approach.
These concepts, central to the PNS approach featured in the Vienna workshops and were taken up by CSOs in various contexts. For example, in VODO's UMICORE case a post-normal stance is adopted, not so much because of purported high uncertainties from the company's perspective (these uncertainties about the relationship between industrial pollutants and health have been radically diminished in the last 100 years of scientific research), but because of the high stakes involved. A Sud - in its work on the waste crisis in Campania, Italy, looks at debates on the uncertainties and risks associated with waste incineration. This conflict is presented as a post normal science problem characterised by complexity, where landscape values, traditional land uses, environmental justice claims, local values and interests and community rights to participate in local decisions on a range of issues at stake, point to the need for a different approach.
Finally the concepts of carrying capacity and even more of resilience are useful in Sunce's case study of Lastovo Island, as knowledge of Island's ability to recover from shock when disturbed could significantly influence any collective agreement on the appropriate limit to put on nautical tourists. Sunce is now eager to put new knowledge to work in gathering data for the assessment the Island's level of resilience in order to inform the development of physical and park management plans.
8. Increased civil society understanding of the institutions and market based environmental policy instruments (such as REDD, eco-taxes) for influencing public behaviour, thereby stimulating involvement in research on the effectiveness of such mechanisms and possible alternatives.
Money-value articulating institutions and market based mechanisms for influencing public behaviour were key presentations at the workshops, and were the focus of much activity in the working group sessions there. This was because they were seen as highly relevant by CSO all partners. The case studies to which these tools were applied include The Rebraf case study, as already mentioned above, in which efforts are being focused on the creation of institutions for the implementation of REDD+ schemes across Brazil. In the Sunce case study, a range of command and control instruments (such as the prohibition of anchoring, urban zoning, or fishing quotas), institutional instruments (introducing nautical tourism eco-labels, or changes in property rights like privatisation of military facilities which could be reformed for tourism purposes) and market based instruments (like levying an environmental tax or a user fee for raising funds for conservation of the NP, or creating financial incentives for sustainable tourism practices) are considered in discussing the best path for the development of a sustainable nautical tourism industry on Lastovo Island. The case study of Djerdap NP in Serbia by partner Endemit also introduces the topic of market based instruments in the context of proposal for tourism development there, and natural capital depletion appear within the context of the case study of forestry in Cameroon. In the case of mining projects in Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador, the issue of royalty payments arose, along with discussions on weak or strong concepts of sustainability.
The glossary in fact contains a detailed description of a wide range of market based, or economic policy instruments, and the online course asked students to discuss in a context relevant to their experience which policy instrument(s) would be the most effective in achieving sustainable tourism. Beyond the workshops, learning materials and course participation, CEECEC in Ljubljana held an open discussion on options for the use of such tools for transit transport charging with Focus, a Slovenian CSO exploring opportunities under the Eurovignette directive. A report on the meeting was placed on the website and disseminated through CEECEC's CSO network.
9. Improvement of the European research community's understanding of global environmental issues and its capacity to address environmental pressures/conflicts facing the South.
In CEECEC research partners have collectively collaborated with CSOs on a broad range of global issues, including waste management, nautical tourism, protected areas management, corporate liability, mining and mineral extractive issues, international trade, transport infrastructure development and forestry. This occurred through the electronic case study drafting process, the development of the Handbook, through interacting with CSO students in the course and in even greater depth in the workshops for the practical application of EE tools to CSO work. In the workshops for example, researchers, after hearing presentations about all of the CSO case study topics in detail, had the opportunity of working in small groups to discuss CSO issues and concerns in greater detail, considering how their expertise could best benefit the issues of concern to CSOs and their goals.
This was also the case in CEECEC's major dissemination events (especially Kenya and Ljubljana), to which local CSOs were invited to present and discuss their work and the potential benefits of collaboration with researchers, and in events run and hosted by CSOs, notably the events in Rome (EE and the crisis) organised by a Sud in which several CEECEC researchers presented to an audience of about 100 civil society members from different organisations. The involvement of Southern CSOs in CEECEC has been important (with partners in Latin America, India and Africa). The use of the concept of 'ecological debt' (introduced by CSO activists of the South in 1991) in CEECEC has been explained above. Other concerns voiced by Southern CSO are incorporated into the Handbook and Glossary. Moreover, new topic of research arose. For instance, at the border between research on climate change and on agricultural sustainability, partners in CEECEC are now familiar with the Via Campesina argument that 'traditional peasant agriculture cools down the Earth', among other reasons because of its higher EROI (as calculated in academic research since the 1970s).
10. Improved capacity of European researchers to engage in further collaborative, trans-disciplinary research with civil society through the initiation of processes for the co-development of language, approaches and tools.
The initiation of processes for co-developing language, approaches and tools for transdisciplinary work commenced from day 1 of the project in Paris at the kick-off meeting, which demanded a collective effort by researchers, led by Willi Haas and Simron Singh of University of Klagenfurt, and Mariana Walter of ICTA to develop a framework for case study description that would provide information sufficient for researchers to be able to collaborate with CSO partners electronically, but also that was deliverable by CSO partners in terms of data/information availability. This capacity was significantly increased in the development and execution of the workshops which were tailored to make the most of CSO time together with ecological economists. The very tangible outputs of this process can be found in the report EE and CSOs: A Blueprint for Collaboration, available on the CEECEC website.
Working with CSOs, researchers found themselves confronted with different logics and institutional frameworks and were forced to find common ground for meaningful collaboration. Researchers were confronted with the reality that their intentions of making science useful to activists were not enough - that structural and ideological issues had to be come to terms with. Researchers in CEECEC had to consider the role of science and its efficiency in generating solutions to real world problems, and felt that CEECEC provided an excellent opportunity to respond to these issues in preparation for future collaborations. As a result of CEECEC, researchers in the project have become more engaged in transdisciplinary research and better linked to civil society, and furthermore, part of a community of shared experience with the potential to develop better frameworks for such collaboration. Researchers have learnt that CSO led research means to engage with big and urgent issues, not well defined as for a PhD thesis- for instance, the ongoing and spreading Cordillera del Cóndor mining conflict in Ecuador. In CEECEC we never told the CSOs that the case studies they proposed were too big or too fuzzy. The initiative came from the CSOs.
List of websites:www.ceecec.net
The CEECEC project arose out of a combination of concerns: growing demands from Civil society organisations (CSOs) for access to expertise in practical application of EE (EE) as a 'science of sustainability' to their work, and at the same time out of concern from within the European and international research communities that the principles and tools of Ecological economics (EE) were rather inaccessible to the general public. CEECEC aimed to build CSO capacity to engage in research in EE, encouraging cooperative research between CSOs and ecological economists for the benefit of policy-making. Key to the CEECEC approach was recognition of the large stock of practical knowledge held by CSOs on environmental-economic issues, and the combination of CSO and research efforts to co-develop language, approaches and tools for collaboration.
CEECEC met its objectives through a range of activities. These included: the identification of topics for cooperative policy research between CSOs and EE based on CSO needs and interests; capacity building activities for collaboration between CSOs and researchers specifically focusing on the Balkan region; a mapping and assessment of previous EE research used by CSOs to guide further fruitful collaboration; the design and implementation of workshops for the application of EE tools and concepts to CSO work; the development of an online handbook as a stand-alone resource for CSOs, teachers of EE and the general public; and finally, the development and trial of an online interactive EE course based on bottom up CSO experience.
Through this approach, the project has had a number of tangible societal impacts. CSOs in and outside of the CEECEC network now have a deepened interest in and greater awareness of the benefits the field offers to CSO concerns, having gained practical knowledge of key concepts and methods of the field. Partners for example, were exposed to indicators of social metabolism such as material flows, virtual water, Energy returned on input (EROI) and Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP), and of methods of economic valuation and schemes of Payment for ecosystem services (PES).
Not only were these concepts demonstrated / applied in the context of CSO case studies - partners have also been able to apply new understanding in engaging with governments and corporate actors. As time passes, we anticipate further uptake of EE tools and methods by CSOs as CEECEC partners continue to develop and build on and share new competencies throughout their networks. Concerning researchers involved in the project, close collaboration with civil society CEECEC has deepened their understanding of global environmental issues, making them aware of the wealth of 'activist knowledge', and building their abilities for future collaboration with CSOs. The broad achievements of CEECEC are in part due to the highly interactive and informative dissemination activities embedded within major European and International conferences, which have not only involved CEECEC partners and their own networks, but have also reached a large and diverse international audience of CSOs, researchers and policy makers.
Project context and objectives:
Summary description of project context and objectives
Project context
The CEECEC project arose out of a combination of concerns. There were growing demands from members of CSOs (organisations defined in this project as not for profit, not representative of commercial interests, non-governmental organisations pursuing the common purpose of sustainable development in the public interest) for access to expertise and practical methods for applying EE as a 'science of sustainability' to their work, and at the same time there is concern from within the European and international research communities that the principles and tools of EE remain rather inaccessible to the general public.
EE: a transdisciplinary field
EE is a trans-disciplinary field that overlaps with industrial ecology, environmental/resource economics, agro-ecology, environmental history, human ecology, and so-called 'sustainability science'. Over the past twenty years the field has grown tremendously.
The 'post - normal' approach
As a 'post-normal' science (PNS) EE asserts that expert opinion is sometimes insufficient and the facts must come from an extended peer community of stakeholders (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1994), One example of the application of a PNS approach could be drawn from one of our partners' current research in Argentina, where GEPAMA-UBA investigated the resistance to glyphosate developed by a strand of aleppo sorghum (a weed) that invades soy bean plantations. There was a debate on the threat that this represents to soybean planters and exporters (and international trade in soybeans and bio-diesel), and on the means to prevent or mitigate such damage. In the face of uncertainty, some argue in favour of the use of still more chemicals or still 'more genes' (the pesticide and the transgenic threadmill), while others point out that the threat of hybridisation or genetic mutation in weeds had always existed but has now increased.
Advancing environmental science
With its post-normal science approach, and its reliance on a physical view of the economy, the field of EE made contributions to the advancement of social and environmental analyses. These include the debate on the dematerialisation of the economy as an indicator of progress in the decoupling between economic growth and environmental degradation, definitions of weak and strong sustainability, the concepts of EROI and HANPP, and the development of scenarios for dealing with uncertainty and complexity. EE therefore approaches issues of international trade differently from neo-classical economics.
Increasing research relevance
EE, with its many concepts from ecology and from economics, is a heavy diet for any CSO organisation involved in everyday pressing problems. However there was a need for two-way communication on these important issues between academics and CSOs, and while EE made significant inroads into including non-academic communities into its analyses, its goal of translating research findings into direct action for solving problems met only limited success.
CSO demands for EE research
CSOs themselves often have identifiable needs for research activities. In fact, a primary motivation for the CEECEC proposal was the calls from CSOs for capacity building and training to investigate issues that require the expert advice of ecological economists. European CSOs were increasingly looking to the frameworks, methods and tools of EE for solutions to the environmental and social challenges posed in their day to day work.
Scientific and social convergence
As a field explicitly concerned with the interplay between economic, environmental and social issues, EE is increasingly drawing the attention of members of both scientific and civil society communities. One concept from EE that has been successfully mainstreamed into civil society discourse is that of the 'ecological footprint' (Rees and Wackernagel, 1994). CSOs worldwide have begun using this index, and marking the day each year when humans exceed the earth's so-called annual capacity for regeneration. The ecological footprint is of course itself subject to scientific scrutiny, but there is no doubt about its glittering success as an instrument for communicating concern about the environment to the public.
Preparing the ground: Exploring opportunities and addressing obstacles
Successful collaborative engagement between CSOs and ecological economists is increasingly and mutually regarded as critical. There was then a clear need for building the capacity of environmental CSOs to understand EE, and to find practical ways of applying its concepts, methods, tools and indicators to their work. In order for any such efforts to bear fruit however, a range of obstacles must be addressed. From the civil society perspective, impediments to increasing collaboration with EE stem from resource limitations (in terms of time and money) that preclude expanding or shifting organisational interests beyond programme delivery to encompass environmental, social and economic policy analysis. Just as importantly, exposure to the fundamental theoretical frameworks of the science, not to mention access to experts themselves has also been limited. As a new and evolving field the number of trained ecological economists, especially those experienced in working with CSOs to achieve mutual goals, is limited.
Bridging the disciplinary divide
In addition there are communication issues characteristic of the 'disciplinary divide' between science and civil society. The scientific community is characterised by linguistic, cultural and institutional rigidities that have served science well but have excluded wider society from being informed about, or informing its activities. The need for academic disciplines to be perceived as legitimate means evolving highly technocratic language and jargon and working from precise and narrow definitions.
Project objectives:
In this context, CEECEC aimed to build CSO capacity to engage in research in EE, and to encourage cooperative research between CSOs and academic ecological economists for the benefit of policy-making. Key to the CEECEC approach was the combination of CSO and research efforts to co-develop language, approaches and tools for collaboration, and the sharing of responsibilities for leadership and dissemination across the project. Capacity building of course cannot succeed as a purely theoretical pursuit, therefore this project built upon the large stock of 'activist knowledge' held by CSOs on environmental-economic issues, translating and shaping it to transmit and illustrate the usefulness and practical application of EE. To date, academic research has tried to demonstrate its practicality, but in rather hermetic language. It was therefore a goal of CEECEC to introduce common languages that would eventually bear fruit in the policy arena. In broad terms then, this project sought to:
- improve CSO access to knowledge of the theoretical frameworks of EE and practical applications for CSO agendas;
- improve CSO capacity to participate in research through methodological capacity-building activities to enable the translation of their knowledge, concerns and agendas into research questions and subsequently into successful research proposals;
- increase awareness amongst ecological economists of CSO practical knowledge and of the most pressing research questions of CSOs and types of research use by CSOs to promote their agendas;
- increase ecological economists' or sustainability scientists' ability to communicate key messages vis-à-vis CSO interests and concerns in understandable terms without over simplification;
- promote effective two-way communication channels to enable the public to engage with EE, and EE to engage with the public in collaborative research.
Project results:
Main results
The CEECEC workplan was made up of 8 integrated Work packages (WPs), the significant results of which are outlined in the following pages.
Identification of issues for future research initiatives
The objectives here were to identify and document key issues and topics across a range of topics of sustainable development policy research (including energy, water, mining, agriculture, forestry, trade, urban waste) for future CSOs and EE cooperative research. These were issues of burning concern at the time to the CSOs in the project, and have remained so some 2 years later. The first task involved the initial presentation by CSOs of topics of interest for collaborative research, using a case study approach with ecological economists. This presentation took place at the CEECEC kick -off meeting in Paris on April 17 2008. All CSO partners presented 1-2 topics for collaborative research.
To develop the topics in more detail and refine the proposed research questions, partners agreed that a more structured approach to cooperation was necessary. To facilitate this process, CEECEC partners developed and agreed on the use of a framework for the shaping of case studies.
Significant results:
Improved CSO/research communication and cooperation
The application of this framework enabled clearer communication between CSOs and researchers and prepared the ground for the joint exploration of a wide range of topics at a necessarily deeper level. It also helped to shape the workshops for practical applications of EE tools to CSO work by providing an indication of which EE concepts and tools would be of greatest relevance to CSO needs and interests. Furthermore, many of these topics would go on to form the content of the online EE toolkit and online course. In effect, this framework forced partners to reflect upon, reveal and negotiate realistic expectations for the collaborative relationships that lay ahead, thus becoming a cornerstone of the entire process of work as it evolved throughout CEECEC.
Broad range of topics identified
Meanwhile topics directly from CEECEC partners were supplemented with others that were identified at project dissemination activities. For example, at the Nairobi workshop at the biennial 'International society for EE' conference at UNEP in Kenya in August 2008, representatives of Kenyan CSOs were invited in advance to take part in a 'live'EE session. Hadley Becha of the East African Wildlife Association (EAWA) spoke here on a conflict involving sugar and bio-fuel production in the Tana Delta that threatens a fragile wetland ecosystem, and is set to increase the HANPP in the area. Also, in Ljubljana at the biennial conference of the 'European society for EE' on June 30 2009, two Slovenian CSOs were invited to present and discuss with ecological economists conflicts in light pollution, transport and nuclear power generation that they were working on. All of the above mentioned topics feature in the final report, 'From activism to policy research', which spans 17 topics including: forestry, waste management, protected areas management, corporate accountability/liability, transport infrastructure, mining, development aid and natural disasters, energy production, watershed protection and payments for ecosystem services. The report is accessible to the general public at http://www.ceecec.net/reports/.
Strategising for CSO / EE engagement in Balkans
The objective in this case was to survey and assess CSO / EE collaboration in the Balkans, as well as civil society trends, in order to strategise for future research initiatives between CSOs and ecological economists in the region. The rationale for this activity was the absence of knowledge of the field of EE in the Balkans amongst researchers (very few members of the European Society for EE, for instance) and CSOs in general, and a certain distance between Balkan and other European CSOs. This first step involved the building of a network by lead partner Endemit, who developed a survey to gather information of the range and type of environmental conflicts CSOs in the Balkan region were working on. The network encompassed CSOs from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Serbia, and once the survey had been translated, it was sent to Focal point organisations (FPOs) for distribution. FPOs were designated by Endemit within each country as those best placed within the Balkan network to distribute surveys to locally active CSOs. Once filled, the surveys (more than 30) were returned to the FPOs who then created short reports on the state of CSO concerns in their countries. These reports were passed on to Endemit for translation back into English, and for analysis.
Significant results:
Focus on local CSO activity
The surveys were used to draw out specific examples of current, highly relevant work taking place within grassroots CSOs on environmental conflicts in the Balkan region. These examples came from organisations with a range of interests, capacities, expertise and resource bases, and were shaped into case studies that were embedded in the latest data gathered by Endemit on the state of the environment, and an assessment of local legal, and institutional contexts. The final report therefore created a unique 'snapshot' of the state of the environment and active CSO concerns in the region. Then, based on this snapshot the report identifies specific opportunities for collaborative EE research based on CSO needs and interests, making it of interest to CSOs as well as researchers interested in the Balkan region. The report, entitled 'Environmental conflicts and issues in south-eastern Europe: Possible collaboration between CSOs and ecological economists' is available on the CEECEC website (www.ceecec.net/reports/) in English and Serbian.
Broadened CSO networks and policy outreach
As a result of this work, in addition to gathering valuable data, Endemit was able to create a new network of CSOs in southern-eastern Europe working on environmental issues, expanding their contacts throughout the Balkan region. In highlighting the work of a broad spectrum of environmentally concerned CSOs, this report exposed the issues within it to other CSOs in the region and beyond, and to a wider European, and international audience. Furthermore, civil society participation in this endeavour meant that the knowledge of EE was increased amongst involved CSOs, most of which had never heard of the field of EE. Taking part therefore increased the capacities of these organisations for being involved in such research.
The report has been disseminated widely throughout the CEECEC network, through Balkan civil society via the FPOs, through the networks of The Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), and at a well-attended workshop attended by ecological economists and activists in Ljubljana at the ESEE biennial conference in July 2009. It was also launched in Serbian policy circles on September 28, 2010 at a special event held for representatives of Public Enterprise for Forest Management 'Srbija Sume', the Serbian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia as well as to the Managers of Serbian national parks. Furthermore, the Report has been sent to the Serbian Regional Environmental Centre, local governments and their environmental departments, the Serbian Agency for Environmental Protection and to environmental journalists. In Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT), ICTA UAB's next project building on CEECEC, the focus on this area will be expanded through Ze Zemiata, a Bulgarian CSO active on mining conflicts in the region.
Mapping and assessment of previous EE research for CSOs
Here the objective was to conduct a mapping of previous EE research used by CSOs in terms of its 1) effectiveness for achieving CSO goals as described vis-à-vis the research, and 2) relevance to current CSO research concerns. This report set out to achieve its objectives by laying its foundation on the work of CEECEC, starting by extracting information from the glossary of EE concepts and the case studies developed by partners, project partners' own other experiences and then complementing this information with examples of the CSO use of EE from a broad variety of other sources.
Significant results:
An innovative mapping exercise
As a result of the overview of CSO experience with EE to date, it was possible to map how collaborative research between CSOs and EE researchers has been evolving. This was possible through the categorisation of emergent areas of work:
- resource accounting tools, mainly biophysical indicators such as ecological footprint, HANPP, EROI, material flow analysis, resource efficiency and virtual water are included;
- national well-being accounts, including efforts to measure well-being and progress towards sustainable development, be it adopting economic approaches, subjective measures of well-being or the use of composite indexes;
- cost benefit analysis (CBA) and economic valuation, including the application of economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis tools for the work of CSO, contingent valuation, travel cost methods, and applications for the valuation of ecosystem services;
- multiple languages of valuation, including CSO use of approaches where multiple languages of valuation are expressed and taken into account in policy processes. This includes the application of tools like multicriteria analysis, scenarios and visioning and community participation exercises;
- ecological distribution conflicts, in cases of CSO action dealing with the application of concepts such as environmental liabilities, corporate accountability, ecological debt, climate justice, unequal ecological exchange are included;
- policy instruments, including CSO initiatives to foster or to criticise the application of environmental policy instruments such as carbon trade, payments for ecosystem services, environmental taxes and certification schemes;
- co-management of natural resources including CSO work in fostering initiatives linked with community based management and joint forest management.
In addition to highlighting trends in collaborative research, the significance of this exercise lay in the fact that it helped to place CEECEC and the work of its members in a much wider context of other experiences of use of EE approaches and tools.
Informed guidance for future collaboration
Based on the mapping exercise, the report goes on to offer key insights to guide future cooperative research with and for CSO. As such, it has been disseminated through CEECEC CSO and research networks, and is available to the general public online, at http://www.ceecec.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/WP5-CEECEC_FINAL-REPORT.pdf . There are plans to develop the final into an academic publication for submission to the journal EE. This will ensure that this report reaches a broad international group. The report will also be of value by way of providing an introduction to the book being prepared for publication with Earthscan in the United Kingdom.
Development and pilot of workshops for practical applications of EE tools to CSO work: A case study approach
The objective was to develop and pilot workshops for practical applications of EE tools to CSO work using a case study approach. Two workshops were planned and held in Vienna Austria, onsite at CEECEC partner IFF-KLU's Institute of Social Ecology (IFF) in February 2008 , and another in Rome, Italy and A Sud's Centro di Documentazione sui Conflitti Ambientali (CDCA) in June 2008.
Significant results:
'Hands-on' CSO exposure to EE
As a result of these workshops a number of key EE tools and methods were made accessible to a CSO audience. This was possible through, the development of innovative presentation materials and scheduled discussion time for tackling any needed clarifications. For instance, new, more accessible materials were developed by researchers on how to explain calculations of HANPP, an indicator of human impact on biomass availability for other species) to a lay audience, and how to make HANPP relevant to the study of environmental conflicts by activists.
Better research understanding of (southern) CSO concerns
Second, CSO presentations and discussion time meant researchers were better able to understand the issues at the heart of CSO conflicts or development projects, which enabled researchers to tailor the application of EE tools better to individual case studies in working group sessions. The process overall meant gains were made for the development of a method for 'talking across disciplines', and also across practices (academic vs. activism). There was of course also room for much teaching and learning from CSO to CSO.
Materials development
Other practical benefits were also to be found in contributions to the progress and quality of case study drafting for the Handbook and course (5. and 6. below), as the workshops provided time and space for multiple focused, in-person, small group discussions between activists and researchers on the practical applicability of EEtools to CSO case studies.
1. PES in India from the Bottom-Up CSE willingness to pay, opportunity cost, Coasian bargaining, environmental services, transaction costs, community property rights, CDM.
2. Participatory Forest Management in Mendha Lekha, India
CSE biomass economy, Gross Nature Product, GDP of the poor, joint forest management, watershed management, social capital, self -regulation, consensual democracy, community rights, non-monetary economy, livelihood security, rights-based approach.
3. Mineral Extraction and Conflict in Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador, Acción Ecológica copper mining, Shuar communities, environmentalism of the poor, biodiversity hot spot, ILO Convention 169, Social Multicriteria Methods, languages of valuation, inconmensurability of values.
4. Manta-Manaos Multi-modal Transport Infrastructure in Ecuador: Nature, Capital and Plunder Acción Ecológica Social metabolism, material flows, transport infrastructure, local knowledge, resource extraction, Chinese export markets, free trade, IIRSA.
5. Waste Crisis in Campania, Italy A Sud hazardous waste, Ecomafia, cost shifting, PNS, 'Zero waste', incinerators, Lawrence Summers principle, DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts, Responses), corruption, EROI.
6. High Speed Transport Infrastructure (TAV) in Italy A Sud Transport and energy, material flows, participatory democracy, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Multi Criteria Evaluation, High speed, NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), activist knowledge.
7. Local Governance and Environment Investments in Hiware Bazar, India CSE environmental investments, grazing rights, community resource management, water harvesting, National rural employment guarantee Act (NREGA), institutional innovations, property rights, virtual water, livelihood security.
8. Nautical Tourism in the Lastovo Islands Nature Park, Croatia. Sunce nautical tourism, marine biodiversity, depopulation, landscape value, property rights, protected area management, carrying capacity, resilience, public participation, willingness to pay, eco-tourism management.
9. Local Communities and Management of Protected Areas in Serbia (Djerdap) Endemit Protected areas, dams and hydroelectricity, depopulation, co-management, eco-tourism, forest economics, local livelihood opportunities, ecosystem services, Krutilla's rule, cost-benefit analysis, trans-boundary cooperation.
10. Mechanisms in Support of the Creation and Consolidation of Protected Areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil: The Potential of REDD and Legal Reserve Compensation REBRAF biodiversity valuation, ecological economic zoning, avoided deforestation, carbon trade, payment for environmental services, opportunity cost, institutional innovations, stakeholder participation, public policy formulation.
11. Forestry and Communities in Cameroon CED-FoE Industrial logging, property rights, community forests, co-management, community interests, commodity chains, ecologically unequal exchange, cost shifting, corporate accountability, corruption, wood certification, fair trade, consumer blindness, languages of valuation, FLEGT.
12. Environmental Justice and Ecological Debt in Belgium: The UMICORE case VODO ecological debt, lead pollution, manufacturing of uncertainty, environmental justice, popular epidemiology, post-normal science, environmental externalities, corporate accountability/ liability, value of human life, discount rate, greenwashing.
13. Aid, Social Metabolism and Social Conflict in the Nicobar Islands IFF-UKL humanitarian aid, material and energy flows, working time, property rights, community ownership, subsistence economy, natural disasters.
14. Land use and water disputes in the Tana Delta, Kenya, ICTA UAB- Nature Kenya wetlands, land-grabbing, irrigation, pastoralists, property rights, biofuels, EROI, HANPP, virtual water, biodiversity.
A blueprint for future collaboration
The initial framework for case study development used in earlier stages of CEECEC, a description of the collaborative case study drafting process, and some key elements from the workshops in Vienna and Rome form the basis of a report entitled 'EE and CSOs: A blueprint for collaboration'. Available on the CEECEC website (http://www.ceecec.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Blueprint-FINAL.pdf) this report illustrates how the collaborative processes employed in designing the CEECEC workshops succeeded in bridging the gaps in expertise and languages that existed between the two distinct realms of academia and activism in order to co-produce new knowledge, providing a practical template for future two-way capacity building exercises between CSOs and ecological economists.
Development and pilot of online EE toolkit
The objective here was to develop and pilot an online EE'toolkit', a Handbook made up of collaboratively written chapters on case studies illustrating and contextualising EE tools and methods, and a glossary. The chapters and glossary were also core materials of the online EE course (see 6. below).These materials were integrated into the website dedicated to the online course and piloted as course materials, before being formatted into the Handbook, a downloadable online e-book.
Significant results:
The handbook - A stand-alone resource based on CSO experience
The handbook was launched officially at the ISEE Biennial conference in Bremen, in August 2010 and posted on the CEECEC website (www.ceecec.net/handbook/) for public comment. The Handbook contains 14 chapters covering a range of issues, all based on CSO needs and interests. These chapters have been written by and with CSOs through an EE lens, embedded with EE concepts and tools designed to illustrate the practical application of such tools in a CSO context. The end product, this CEECEC Handbook: EE from the Bottom-Up, is available as an open access, stand-alone toolkit on the project website for teaching and learning EE through front-line activist experience and knowledge.
A teaching/ learning tool for civil society, academia and policy
The chapters deal with high-stakes environmental conflicts and issues, and while the contents are mainly geared to environmental justice organisations and to civil society, they will also be most useful to academics researching and teaching in the sustainability sciences, and policy makers working to promote sustainability at different levels. The glossary and its entries to which the case studies are hyperlinked, was also written by CEECEC partners to complement the case study chapters by explaining in greater depth the concepts presented within them. Glossary entries were produced by drawing upon knowledge already in the public domain (on the internet and in other publications in EE and political ecology), and in some cases, on the original research of the authors. They cover topics (in alphabetical order) from access and use rights to well-being.
A forthcoming publication
The handbook (and the glossary separately) is now available in English and in French language versions online. The response to this resource has been very positive, illustrated by praise from respected academic peers and activists alike (see some of these comments in the text box below). It is foreseen that the Handbook will remain online as an open access resource for a long time. Meanwhile, In Spring 2010 the CEECEC coordinators were approached by the publishing house Earthscan (London), specialised in environmental issues, and conversations initiated on how to turn the CEECEC Handbook into a book that would be called 'EE from the ground up', based on the handbook materials. This book will be published (it is hoped) at the end of 2011, and due acknowledgement made to the CEECEC project and to FP7 SiS funding. It is foreseen that new chapters will be added, all of them products of collaborative research between academics and CSOs.
Comments on CEECEC handbook
From Richard Norgaard, University of California Berkeley
Four decades ago, as the environmental movement was heating up in the United States, The Environmental Handbook: Prepared for the first national environmental teach-in was published by Ballantine and friends of the Earth (edited by Garrett De Bell, 1970). This eclectic collection of critical information for environmental activists could soon be found in students' back packs and on the desks of bureaucrats and executives. It sold very well, perhaps out-selling Bibles in the U.S. that year. The CEECEC handbook is just what is needed for the times, down-to-earth documentation of how to fight bad economics with good economics, how to fight economic interests with an economics that empowers the public's interest in social justice and environmental sustainability. Much as the original Environmental Handbook was assembled to inform and expand the power of the grass roots, this Handbook provides what is needed now: documentation of successful and on-going efforts from the bottom up to reshape the future along with a glossary of key concepts that challenge business as usual.
Pushpam Kumar, Chief Economist United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
The scope and range of ideas dealt with in this Handbook are of a gigantic scale. This book represents the first serious effort by an international group of researchers, under the direction of one of the finest ecological economists of our time- Prof Joan Martinez Alier, to enrich and validate the approaches, frameworks and methods of EE. This has been done in a true tradition of interdisciplinarity, with the application of a range of innovative approaches, from social metabolic accounting to valuation to participation. This book represents a truly remarkable effort and will be a delight to read for practitioners in and outside of the academic fraternity.
Andrew Stirling, SPRU, University of Sussex
The authors are to be congratulated for an initiative that is path-breaking in a number of ways. First, because the process through which this analysis has been produced is highly innovative - with potentially significant implications for wider research practice. Although the language of 'multi', 'inter' and 'transdisciplinarity' are much used, work often falls short of the true promise. In this pioneering example of what the European Commission calls 'cooperative research', the authors have genuinely succeeded in articulating very positively a diversity of often-conflicting disciplinary and societal perspectives around pressing social and environmental policy challenges around the world. The results show what can really be achieved when academics work in a more collegial and symmetrical way with CSOs - opening up different ways of framing problems and giving a voice to often-marginalised interests.
A second reason why this analysis is path-breaking is because of its scope and depth. A coherent set of central ideas and approaches are explored through an impressive array of empirical cases studies. These span a wide range of contrasting industrial sectors and socio-ecological contexts, extending across both northern and southern global settings. The emphasis throughout is on international, environmental and institutional interconnections. The breadth of analysis also extends beyond the often-narrow disciplinary domains, to encompass often-neglected dimensions of culture and power, as well as economic, biophysical and technological dynamics.
A third feature that sets this analysis apart is its pragmatic engagement with pressing real-world problems. Eschewing elaborate procedures to confirm or falsify abstract disciplinary principles or frameworks for their own sake, the focus is repeatedly on the development of practical methods and approaches. This amplifies the general applicability of the final results, and its transferability to a host of disparate problems and settings that intersperse those that are addressed directly here. As a result, the final product should find an enthusiastic readership among policy makers, lobbyists and activists and environmental managers in business, as among academic researchers in the range of disciplines addressed: economics and political science, as well as various areas of environmental science and policy analysis.
Development and pilot of interactive online EE and environmental policy courses for civil society
Objective:
The objective was to develop and pilot an interactive online EE course for CSOs and the general public, based on case studies. The course, which ran from April to July 2010, was centred on online lectures with audio, but included other activities. Each week of the course was structured as follows, featuring:
-An introduction: Introductory slide show. This was a flash presentation that introduced the topic, and key issues and concepts used in the lecture.
-A lecture: The lecture was implemented via Flash slides with audio, and lasted from 45 minutes to an hour.
-A task 1: All students were required to take part in a discussion forum in a virtual classroom.
-A case study: Students were then instructed to read the case study, referring to the glossary for more in depth explanations of terms, concepts and tools.
-A task 2: An assignment in which students could apply their new knowledge. The questions were structured in such a way that students could illustrate their understanding by drawing on their own knowledge and experience.
-Lecture design was shared between researchers and the CSO partners who had co-written the case studies at the centre of each lecture, giving their seal of approval or expressing concerns regarding the final product. There were 12 lectures in all, covering the following topics:
1. Aid, social metabolism and social conflict in the Nicobar Islands.
2.Let them eat sugar: Life and Livelihood in Kenya's Tana Delta.
3.Forestry and communities in Cameroon.
4.The waste crisis in Campania, Italy.
5.Environmental justice and ecological debt in Belgium: The UMICORE case.
6.Participatory forest management in Mendha Lekha, India.
7.'Mechanisms in support of the creation and consolidation of protected areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil: The potential of REDD and legal reserve compensation and PES in India from the bottom-up'.
8. Nautical tourism in the Lastovo Islands Nature Park, Croatia.
9.High-speed transport infrastructure (TAV) in Italy.
10.Local communities and management of protected areas in Serbia.
11.Local governance and environment investments in Hiware Bazar, India.
12.Ecological distributive conflicts on commodity frontiers: Mining and transport in Ecuador.
Significant results:
Cooperative materials development and teaching
The lectures formed the core of the course but it should be pointed out that not only academics were involved in delivering the lectures, but many CSO partners as well, in keeping with the spirit of CEECEC which values and recognises that CSOs hold large stocks of knowledge useful to the research community. For instance Supriya Singh of CSE India delivered 3 lectures, one on environmental investments in Hiware Bazaar, Forestry in Mendha Lekha, and PES in Himachal Pradesh. Biljana Macura, of Endemit Ecological Society (also a trained biologist) delivered the lecture on Management of Protected Areas in Djerdap NP, Serbia. Ivonne Yanez of Accion Ecologica was deeply involved in the design of the lectures on Ecuador, and Nick Meynen of VODO assisted closely in the development of Lea Sebastien's lecture on Ecological Debt of the UMICORE corporation in Belgium.
Practical, relevant and accessible learning
Participating as students were 13 individuals from CEECEC network CSOs, with an additional 12 participants chosen in response to calls for volunteers sent out by the CEECEC newsletter and announcements through partners' and other websites. Over 140 expressions of interest in taking the course were received, and participants were chosen to achieve a balance between male and female, Northern and Southern, and CSO and non-CSO (others were students, professors or policy researchers/advisors from local to international levels of government) learners. Students also had the option of submitting assignments, the most challenging part of the course, in their native language. Many students took advantage of this opportunity, submitting assignments for assessment by tutors in French, Spanish and Portuguese. At the end of the course students submitted detailed feedback on their experience.
The Final product
The CEECEC network and coordinators are now in possession of a piloted, ready-made online resource for teaching and learning EE from the ground-up. The next stage will be to find a way of continuing to run the course for the benefit of CSOs and the general public at a cost that is not prohibitive to achieving ongoing enrolment. Interest has been expressed by several established institutes in running the course, which is set to start again under EJOLT, ICTA - UAB's next project. The Coordinators are therefore now considering the best way to bring the course forward to a wider audience at an affordable cost.
Potential impact:
The goal of CEECEC was to enable CSOs to engage and lead collaborative research with ecological economists. The overall focus was not on theory but on case study learning, whereby CSO and academics identified and explored key issues for research on environmental and sustainability matters based on CSO needs and interests. While societal impacts of the activities undertaken in this project will take time to reveal themselves as CSOs begin to apply new learning to their work, the process of developing the case studies for the Handbook, and participation in the course has clearly led to a transfer of EE knowledge and capabilities to CSOs within CEECEC, and well beyond through the participation of non-network CSOs in the course, and the wide dissemination of the handbook as a teaching/learning tool.
1. Deepened interest in the science and applications of EE amongst CSOs and the general public.
Within the CEECEC network, the project initially stimulated CSO interest in the field through work identifying issues for future cooperative research based on CSO needs and interests. The case study development process deepened knowledge of the tools and methods, as did participation in the online course, in which a broad range of EE concepts and tools featured, along with opportunities for their discussion and practical application. As understanding of the field and capacity to engage with it grew amongst CEECEC civil society partners, interest in the field spread to the general public through the communication channels of project (and external) CSOs, via their websites, newsletters and parallel events. For example, in developing their case studies, CSOs, Accion Ecologica, Endemit, Rebraf, A Sud and VODO actively engaged with local communities, holding workshops, conferences and other events in order to explore the issues at stake, and in so doing explaining the role and relevance of EE in CEECEC.
The general public was also reached through CSO partners' press releases and numerous other publications designed for their constituencies, which included local community organisations and individual members of the public. Interest was also stimulated through major dissemination events embedded within international conferences to which members of local civil society were invited. The project website too has been instrumental, providing access to reports highlighting the benefits of activist/EE collaboration, and to the online Handbook, an open access resource for teaching/learning EE through CSO experience.
2. Increased uptake of environmental indicators as analytical instruments for CSOs examining environmental issues
The CEECEC workshops on practical applications of EE tools and methods to CSO work were instrumental in developing knowledge of indicators amongst CEECEC partners, and as a result, many have been successfully introduced and explored through the development of chapters for the Handbook. For example, the Manta Manaos case study by Accion Ecologica introduces the concept of social metabolism and material flow indicators. EROI an indicator of energy returned on energy input, features in A Sud's case study on the waste conflict in Campania, pointing to the negative EROI in the combustion of waste there.
Another example comes from the case study on the Tana Delta in Kenya, a chapter developed by ICTA UAB in cooperation with non-CEECEC members, the East African Wildlife Society and Nature Kenya, illustrating the usefulness of HANPP, virtual water and EROI in the context of plans for bio-fuel production in the delta. In the online course students were given the opportunity to speculate on how they might use these tools within their work on environmental issues. As knowledge of the Handbook continues to proliferate, we expect further knowledge of the concept of social metabolism and of these indicators to impact on CSO work.
3. Increased capability of environmental CSOs to understand and contribute to discussions on economic valuation and payment for environmental services, by contributing their own critiques and suggestions for further research.
Tools for economic valuation and schemes for payments for environmental services were covered in depth in the CEECEC workshops as they were of great interest to our CSO partners. Economic valuation was seen as useful for conveying important messages in a language (monetary value) easily understandable to the general public and decision makers. As such CBA featured in the case studies of Sunce, Endemit and A Sud. Sunce highlighted the practicality of contingent valuation and travel-cost method in developing plans for sustainable tourism in the Lastovo Islands in Croatia. Endemit of Serbia, analysed the costs and benefits arising from the construction of a large dam at the Iron Gates on the Danube, arguing that if a CBA had been carried out in line with John Krutilla's rule (Krutilla, 1967), the non-use option value of keeping an irreplaceable natural area with a rich cultural heritage intact would have been taken into account in the decision making process. A Sud also refers the use of CBA in a conflict over the plans to build a tunnel for High Speed Transport Infrastructure (TAV) in Italy. They cite the results of an earlier CBA showing that the proposed new line is not the most advantageous alternative to the existing railway and road transport system.
On the topic of PES, key lessons for CEECEC CSOs in fact came from the case studies of two CSO partners actively using PES approaches in their work, CSE (India) and REBRAF (Brazil). Both case studies feature in the Handbook, available in the public domain, and both CSO staff members shared the teaching of the unit on PES in the online course, providing the opportunity for deeper exploration of PES related issues. Rebraf's case study on REDD was in fact used to empower smaller CSOs in the region with similar interests in establishing REDD schemes, and REBRAF is now involved in a new policy mix project, an FP-7 funded offshoot of CEECEC that aims to transfer knowledge of economic and command and control instruments for biodiversity conservation in Latin America to European contexts.
4. Deepened understanding of concepts and tools for addressing Southern environmental issues and environmental pressures/conflicts facing the South on issues such as climate change, trade, bio-piracy, and conservation of biodiversity.
Southern issues featured strongly in the CEECEC programme, with 5 Southern partner organisations and 2 Northern ones working on North-South issues. Case studies in the handbook focused on several key concepts' and tools particularly relevant to the South. The Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Cameroon for example developed a case study on industrial logging there, stressing the importance of the concept of ecologically unequal exchange. Ecological debt and environmental liability concepts are also present in the case of the Mining Enclave of the Cordillera del Cóndor, by Acción Ecológica. The concept of ecological debt has moved from activism to science and public policy. For example, in Copenhagen in December 2009 at least 20 heads of government or ministers explicitly mentioned the ecological debt (or climate debt) in their speeches, some using also the loaded word 'reparations'.
In CEECEC we have accompanied this movement because of the strong involvement of some partners (Acción Ecológica, ASud) over the years in campaigns on the ecological debt, and building on its involvement in CEECEC, CED Cameroon has formed a working group of lecturers (political scientists, economists, sociologists) and students (all together 21 persons so far), to begin discussions on degrowth from a Cameroonian and central African perspective, exploring what it means for forest management, and for natural resources exploitation, especially oil and mining in the region, with the idea that the North should not increase further its ecological debts.
The concepts of ecological debts and liabilities are relevant also for the internal policy of the EU where the 'Environmental liability' directive entered into force in April 2004, though not all countries have yet enacted the corresponding internal legislation. A final example of how Southern issues have been addressed in CEECEC comes from the case of Mendha Lekha, by CSE in India. Mendha Lekha, a small tribal village in Maharashtra represents a success story in community resource management, and the CSE used the concepts of 'the GDP of the Poor', or 'Gross Nature Product' to demonstrate how villagers have prospered and at the same time managed to keep their economy relatively free of monetisation. These issues not only featured in the Handbook and course, but also in CSO presentations at European and International dissemination events attended by accomplished EE researchers and the general public. They are also highlighted in reports available on the website, such as 'From activism to policy research: Key issues and topics for future collaborative sustainability research', and 'CSOs and EE: Mapping and assessing CSO engagement with the field', and in the widely disseminated video 'Hiware bazaar millionaires', which was screened at international conferences and on the project and partners' websites. Our Indian partner CSE will use this and other materials generated by CEECEC in a new online course (agenda for wurvival) it is developing to be run in July of 2011.
5.Increased capability of environmental CSOs to act as intermediaries between governments/corporate actors and other CSOs or community organisations facing conflicts over use of resources and sinks.
Armed with the methods and tools of EE gained through the workshops, Handbook development and online course, CSOs in the CEECEC network have, during the course of the project initiated discussions with policy makers and corporate actors in pursuit of their organisational goals. VODO was enabled to approach UMICORE, initiating a dialogue with the company's President on the existence of an outstanding ecological debt toward communities neighbouring the company's plant in Hoboken, Belgium. Endemit has initiated a dialogue with policy makers including the Serbian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, and the Managers of Serbian national parks on the possibilities for co-management of the natural resources within Djerdap NP that will directly benefit the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the region.
Sunce as well is hoping to influence the development of a sustainable tourism industry through the use of economic policy instruments in the Lastovo Islands through cooperation with the relevant government ministries, institutes, planning departments and local municipalities, and is now expanding their work in this area to the island of Hvar, in the region of Split. As more CSOs become aware of the potential offered by EE methods and tools to their work, we anticipate an increase in this type of activity.
6. Improved CSO understanding of social metabolic approaches such as life-cycle analysis, enabling enhanced research capabilities regarding consumption issues and their environmental impact.
Social metabolic approaches were a key feature of the CEECEC program, as they are to the field. As such they were emphasised in the workshops in Vienna, which were hosted by Klagenfurt University's Institute for Social Ecology, home of leading European research on social metabolism. The importance of these approaches is reflected in the chapters of the Handbook. For example, social metabolism appears in the first chapter of the Handbook, in the context of the Manta-Manaos project for furthering exports from Amazonia towards China. Social metabolic processes are also central to A Sud's work on the TAV conflict, which directly questions the need to exponentially increase the movement of goods, preferring instead more localised forms of consumption and decision making.
Similarly the CED chapter on forestry in Cameroon has integrated a social metabolic approach in its case study, examining how high levels of resource consumption in the North have led to environmental destruction and the maintenance of unsustainable exploitation patterns in the context of industrial logging in that country. This chapter introduced the concept of 'consumer blindness' in the context of the discussion of (falsely) certified wood exports. These chapters are all now in the public domain in the Handbook for the benefit of other CSOs and the general public. The topic of social metabolism of course featured in the online course as well, offering participants the opportunity to reflect on social metabolic approaches (such as material and energy flow accounting - MEFA) how they could be applied to the investigation of sustainability issues in a case relevant to students, and what results would be expected from doing so.
7.Increased CSO understanding of key EE concepts such as complexity, uncertainty, and resilience, concepts valuable in policy discussions and when implementing the precautionary principle in a post-normal scientific approach.
These concepts, central to the PNS approach featured in the Vienna workshops and were taken up by CSOs in various contexts. For example, in VODO's UMICORE case a post-normal stance is adopted, not so much because of purported high uncertainties from the company's perspective (these uncertainties about the relationship between industrial pollutants and health have been radically diminished in the last 100 years of scientific research), but because of the high stakes involved. A Sud - in its work on the waste crisis in Campania, Italy, looks at debates on the uncertainties and risks associated with waste incineration. This conflict is presented as a post normal science problem characterised by complexity, where landscape values, traditional land uses, environmental justice claims, local values and interests and community rights to participate in local decisions on a range of issues at stake, point to the need for a different approach.
Finally the concepts of carrying capacity and even more of resilience are useful in Sunce's case study of Lastovo Island, as knowledge of Island's ability to recover from shock when disturbed could significantly influence any collective agreement on the appropriate limit to put on nautical tourists. Sunce is now eager to put new knowledge to work in gathering data for the assessment the Island's level of resilience in order to inform the development of physical and park management plans.
8. Increased civil society understanding of the institutions and market based environmental policy instruments (such as REDD, eco-taxes) for influencing public behaviour, thereby stimulating involvement in research on the effectiveness of such mechanisms and possible alternatives.
Money-value articulating institutions and market based mechanisms for influencing public behaviour were key presentations at the workshops, and were the focus of much activity in the working group sessions there. This was because they were seen as highly relevant by CSO all partners. The case studies to which these tools were applied include The Rebraf case study, as already mentioned above, in which efforts are being focused on the creation of institutions for the implementation of REDD+ schemes across Brazil. In the Sunce case study, a range of command and control instruments (such as the prohibition of anchoring, urban zoning, or fishing quotas), institutional instruments (introducing nautical tourism eco-labels, or changes in property rights like privatisation of military facilities which could be reformed for tourism purposes) and market based instruments (like levying an environmental tax or a user fee for raising funds for conservation of the NP, or creating financial incentives for sustainable tourism practices) are considered in discussing the best path for the development of a sustainable nautical tourism industry on Lastovo Island. The case study of Djerdap NP in Serbia by partner Endemit also introduces the topic of market based instruments in the context of proposal for tourism development there, and natural capital depletion appear within the context of the case study of forestry in Cameroon. In the case of mining projects in Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador, the issue of royalty payments arose, along with discussions on weak or strong concepts of sustainability.
The glossary in fact contains a detailed description of a wide range of market based, or economic policy instruments, and the online course asked students to discuss in a context relevant to their experience which policy instrument(s) would be the most effective in achieving sustainable tourism. Beyond the workshops, learning materials and course participation, CEECEC in Ljubljana held an open discussion on options for the use of such tools for transit transport charging with Focus, a Slovenian CSO exploring opportunities under the Eurovignette directive. A report on the meeting was placed on the website and disseminated through CEECEC's CSO network.
9. Improvement of the European research community's understanding of global environmental issues and its capacity to address environmental pressures/conflicts facing the South.
In CEECEC research partners have collectively collaborated with CSOs on a broad range of global issues, including waste management, nautical tourism, protected areas management, corporate liability, mining and mineral extractive issues, international trade, transport infrastructure development and forestry. This occurred through the electronic case study drafting process, the development of the Handbook, through interacting with CSO students in the course and in even greater depth in the workshops for the practical application of EE tools to CSO work. In the workshops for example, researchers, after hearing presentations about all of the CSO case study topics in detail, had the opportunity of working in small groups to discuss CSO issues and concerns in greater detail, considering how their expertise could best benefit the issues of concern to CSOs and their goals.
This was also the case in CEECEC's major dissemination events (especially Kenya and Ljubljana), to which local CSOs were invited to present and discuss their work and the potential benefits of collaboration with researchers, and in events run and hosted by CSOs, notably the events in Rome (EE and the crisis) organised by a Sud in which several CEECEC researchers presented to an audience of about 100 civil society members from different organisations. The involvement of Southern CSOs in CEECEC has been important (with partners in Latin America, India and Africa). The use of the concept of 'ecological debt' (introduced by CSO activists of the South in 1991) in CEECEC has been explained above. Other concerns voiced by Southern CSO are incorporated into the Handbook and Glossary. Moreover, new topic of research arose. For instance, at the border between research on climate change and on agricultural sustainability, partners in CEECEC are now familiar with the Via Campesina argument that 'traditional peasant agriculture cools down the Earth', among other reasons because of its higher EROI (as calculated in academic research since the 1970s).
10. Improved capacity of European researchers to engage in further collaborative, trans-disciplinary research with civil society through the initiation of processes for the co-development of language, approaches and tools.
The initiation of processes for co-developing language, approaches and tools for transdisciplinary work commenced from day 1 of the project in Paris at the kick-off meeting, which demanded a collective effort by researchers, led by Willi Haas and Simron Singh of University of Klagenfurt, and Mariana Walter of ICTA to develop a framework for case study description that would provide information sufficient for researchers to be able to collaborate with CSO partners electronically, but also that was deliverable by CSO partners in terms of data/information availability. This capacity was significantly increased in the development and execution of the workshops which were tailored to make the most of CSO time together with ecological economists. The very tangible outputs of this process can be found in the report EE and CSOs: A Blueprint for Collaboration, available on the CEECEC website.
Working with CSOs, researchers found themselves confronted with different logics and institutional frameworks and were forced to find common ground for meaningful collaboration. Researchers were confronted with the reality that their intentions of making science useful to activists were not enough - that structural and ideological issues had to be come to terms with. Researchers in CEECEC had to consider the role of science and its efficiency in generating solutions to real world problems, and felt that CEECEC provided an excellent opportunity to respond to these issues in preparation for future collaborations. As a result of CEECEC, researchers in the project have become more engaged in transdisciplinary research and better linked to civil society, and furthermore, part of a community of shared experience with the potential to develop better frameworks for such collaboration. Researchers have learnt that CSO led research means to engage with big and urgent issues, not well defined as for a PhD thesis- for instance, the ongoing and spreading Cordillera del Cóndor mining conflict in Ecuador. In CEECEC we never told the CSOs that the case studies they proposed were too big or too fuzzy. The initiative came from the CSOs.
List of websites:www.ceecec.net