Civic Ecology Education

Keith G. TidballExtension Associate and PhD Student, Department of Natural ResourcesMarianne KrasnyProfessor and Chair, Department of Natural Resources

World Environmental Education Conference 2007 Durban, South Africa

The ProblemWith urban centers

growing at an unprecedented rate, cities are becoming an increasingly critical component of regional and global socio-ecological systems.

This leads to two important questions:

• At what point will cities' ability to demonstrate resilience, or capacity to tolerate further change without reorganizing around a different set of structures and procedures, be compromised?  

• How will such loss of social and ecological structure and processes impact global human and environmental security?

An Approach... Civic EcologyCivic Ecology is a systems approach to urban resilience that integrates social and ecological processes, governance, and the built environment.

Civic Ecology seeks to answer questions about the role of community-based environmental initiatives in building resilience and

security in cities.

Background & Theory

Source of Chart:  United Nations World Urbanization www.un.org/.../publications/WUP2005/2005wup.htm  

• Rapid urban expansion and sustainable development are viewed as incompatible.

• Systems thinking allows us to see how these two processes may work together, leading to resilience in socio-ecological systems.

Background & TheorySystem Dynamics entails making three fundamental shifts of mind relative to our traditional way of thinking.

– From linear, laundry list thinking to a circular, closed-loop view of causality.

– A shift from an external to an internal focus on performance, how we, not others, are responsible for most of the results we get.

– A focus on an operational view of how things actually work. This is in contrast to traditional analysis methods based on statistical correlation of trends from the past.

CitiesNatural

Resources

Background & Theory

“Systems dynamics thinking gets a lot of its power from a 'feedback' perspective -- the realization that tough dynamic problems arise in situations with lots of pressures and perceptions that interact to form loops of circular causality, rather than simple one-way causal chains.”

Source:

Background & TheoryResilience theory provides explanations for the source

and role of transforming change in adaptive systems

Background & Theory

Intervention

Asset enhanc

ed

Existing asset in city

More resilient

city

Feedback loops help us to understand how existing assets in cities can be used to help resolve conflicts that arise through resource exploitation.

Research Questions  What role do urban community greening, watershed

restoration, and similar Civic Ecology initiatives play in building communities that are resilient in the face of conflict and disaster?

What is the role of education programs based in Civic Ecology initiatives in building community resilience?

How might Civic Ecology initiatives be used in development, post-conflict reconstruction, and “Environmental Peacemaking”?*

 

* Conca, K & G Dabelko (Eds.), 2002, Environmental Peacemaking, Johns Hopkins University

Press.

Application...Civic Ecology Praxis

UrbanCommunity

Greening

Community-basedBiodiversity Monitoring

Participatory Habitat& WatershedRestoration

Application...in community development

• Civic Ecology situates initiative and ownership within local communities, and thus fosters local leadership. This, along with its integration of diverse peoples and perspectives, participatory approaches, and commitment to learning, makes Civic Ecology an important element in sustainable approaches to international development and to developing resilience prior to and following disaster.

Application... In conservation education

Civic Ecology Education integrates learning from scientists and community members, and community action. The goal is to build resilient communities, through enabling youth and adults to develop and apply an understanding of science and of diverse cultures, and to become active, contributing, and informed members of their community. Civic Ecology Education builds on and reinforces existing community assets.

Application...in natural resource management

• Community-based biodiversity monitoring and other Civic Ecology tools can be used to better manage natural resources. Currently, we are exploring issues related to urban land use management and community greening in Cape Town and Johannesburg South Africa, New York City, and New Orleans.