Using environmental report cards to encourage constructive stakeholder relationships in natural resource management: developing a participatory report carding process

Abstract

Environmental report cards are an increasingly widespread tool for reporting ecosystem health. In areport card, overall ecosystem health is typically presented as a grade from A to F, similar to schoolreport cards. This overall grade is a product of assessing indicators of ecosystem health, such aswater quality and biodiversity. In turn, the health of each indicator might be assessed using subindicators(e.g., water quality health might be indicated by salinity, turbidity, nutrient levels, anddissolved oxygen levels). Assessing an indicator requires setting thresholds defining what levels ofsalinity constitutes an A grade, a B grade, a C grade, and so on.When published periodically (often annually), environmental report cards are apt tools forsupporting adaptive management. Adaptive management is an iterative management approachwhereby policies are implemented, their effects monitored and evaluated, and adjusted accordingly(Walters, 2002; Holling, 1978). By periodically synthesising monitoring data, report cards can helpenvironmental managers to see changes in the environment they manage (including the effect oftheir management), and to adapt accordingly (see Harwell et al., 1999).However, current research on report cards tends to focus on the report card product (the documentconstituting the report card) or the methodology of converting raw data into grades (see Connolly etal., 2013). The process of creating a report card has not been examined in depth, at least not insofaras such processes relate to social interactions among stakeholders. And yet it is well established thatsuch social dimensions are critical to environmental and natural resource management (NRM). Inparticular, it is widely recognised that collaborative approaches can lead to better communityengagement, more empowered decision-making, the inclusion of a more diverse set of perspectives,social learning, improved social capital, and greater acceptance of decisions leading to lowered riskof destructive conflict (Whelan & Oliver, 2005; Wondolleck & Yaffee, 2000; Daniels & Walker,2001; Keen et al., 2005).This thesis aims to develop environmental report cards as a tool for the express purpose ofencouraging constructive stakeholder relationships. More specifically, it aims to develop acollaborative report card process that would encourage constructive stakeholder relationships. Thistool is the central output of the thesis. Producing this tool required two linked research components.The first component identified what factors make stakeholder relationships in NRM moreconstructive or destructive. Conducted in the Australian NRM context, a total of 26 interviews withenvironmental managers and other stakeholders yielded over 20 factors, which were categorisedinto four themes. A mental model of these factors was created (the ‘landscape’ model), as a way of helping people involved in NRM to make sense of the interplay between the factors. The findings ofthis study became an analytical framework for the second research component.The second component critically documented an existing report card process, as practiced by theIntegration & Application Network (IAN), within the University of Maryland, USA. IAN's programwas chosen firstly because its report cards are utilised globally, and secondly because itscollaborative process presented opportunities to examine whether and how it could be used toencourage constructive stakeholder relationships. IAN's process was observed over 8 months'participant–observation in 2013/14. Three US report card programs were examined as primary casestudies: Long Island Sound, Arkansas & Red Rivers (within the Mississippi River Basin), andChesapeake Bay. An additional 15 interviews were conducted with participants, funders and usersof the three case studies.Overall, the two components combined to enable IAN’s report card process to be documented andcritically examined from a relationship-building perspective. The result is a report card processdesigned specifically to encourage constructive stakeholder relationships. As report cards becomemore widespread, it is hoped that this thesis will enable them to play an expanded role – not just incommunicating monitoring data, but in navigating the complex social and political relationshipsthat make environmental management so intricate, fascinating, and rewarding.