Using Participatory and Learning-Based Approaches for Environmental Management to Help Achieve Constructive Behaviour Change
Summary
Project and Client
This report on ways to influence people's behaviour to improve environmental management was prepared for the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) by Landcare Research, Lincoln, in May 2002. The Ministry is looking for new approaches that work with multi-stakeholder groups and teams, in particular those which improve motivation, information flows, and collaborative learning.Objectives
- To review contemporary approaches to environmental policy making.
- To review frameworks for supporting behaviour change.
- To outline the key concepts for managing participation in practice.
- To describe techniques for building group capacity for environmental
change.
Method
- This report is based on literature reviews and the results of Landcare
Research experience in the area of participatory learning.
Main Findings
- Need to foster shared understanding of individual viewpoints and
group participation.
Over the past decades social science understanding of what motivates changes in human behaviour recognises that people are active sense-makers, who are continually assessing their environment and acting according to their interpretations of the situation. Because each individual or group experiences the world slightly differently, they may react differently to what may to be the same situation. This highlights the importance of getting people together to establish a shared understanding of any problem situation and the potential pathways for action. When people feel that they have had the opportunity to participate in planning future change, they are likely to buy into the changes that may be required of them.
Complementary approaches are required to promote action, based on educational initiatives.
This recognition has led researchers and policy makers to rethink environmental policies and the role of regulation. Regulation is not a linear process where policy makers enforce a particular policy with a distinctive and well-defined effect. Policy success depends on many factors and particularly on the cooperation of different groups of society. International environmental policy trends are recognising the need to creatively utilise the multiple mechanisms available (regulatory, incentive, voluntary, and property right) in designing approaches to promote action on environmental issues. Each has specific strengths and weaknesses. However, the effectiveness of all depends on a supporting framework of education, awareness raising, understanding and ownership.
- Change is a developmental process that takes time and different
expectations.
Thus, the idea of stakeholder participation is a key operational principle of contemporary sustainable-development policies, programmes, and projects. However, gaining the involvement of different groups in participatory initiatives is a complex process. There are no single approaches or methods that one can use. Participation is not a one-off event like consultation; it is an ongoing process. It takes time, resources, understanding and perseverance, but the end result should be a development process that involves people from different groups – and their ideas, skills and knowledge. Participation in this way can contribute heavily to sustainability, make environmental activities more effective, and simultaneously contribute to building the capacity of those groups involved to continue and grow the initiative. However, promoting participation implies a different way of working, the use of different approaches and methods, and different expectations. Key concepts central to achieving this include 'social capital', 'levels of participation', 'participation as process', 'stakeholder identification and analysis', and 'participatory monitoring and evaluation'.
Participation needs to be effective at all levels of involvement.
It is also important that participation be practised simultaneously at different levels of decision making. It is most useful to think of three levels of participation: national, institutional and programme, and projects on the ground. Because environmental programmes are designed to be responsive to changing community needs, one of the most pressing challenges is to develop participatory and systems-based monitoring and evaluative processes that allow for ongoing learning, correction, and adjustment by all parties concerned.
It is important to give attention to both task and process.
Effective collaborative initiatives are those that pay attention to both task and process, and so meet the needs of the different participants in both these areas. In this regard the task can be defined as what those involved have to do (e.g. reduce waste) whereas the process is concerned with how people and groups/teams work together, maintain relationships, and achieve agreed outcomes. Because task and process are linked in this way, it is important to measure and evaluate the progress of both.
Transformational change requires group cultural change that spreads to others.
In the end, participatory initiatives on the ground involve people working in groups and teams. Accordingly, an understanding of how to initiate and foster these social units is essential for delivering participation. However, to foster a more collective approach to environmental management that is capable of transformational change, we have to do more than just work together on specific projects. Transformational change requires individuals and groups to develop the capacity to move beyond the completion of task-bounded activities. They must catalyse change within their immediate membership first, and spread that culture to others in their communities over the longer term. Supporting groups in this way requires an understanding of group processes and stages of development, attention to factors such as group abilities and skills, and the use of appropriate participatory monitoring and evaluation processes.
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Thanks to the Ministry for the Environment for permission to reproduce this report here.
[Reference as: Allen, W.; Kilvington, M., Horn, C. (2002) Using participatory and learning-based approaches for environmental management to help achieve constructive behaviour change. Landcare Research Contract Report LC0102/057, Lincoln, New Zealand. Available from: http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/social/par_rep.asp]
Page last updated: Tuesday, August 27, 2002