Involving People – Community Dialogue
Involving people is a fundamental part of an integrated approach to the planning, design and management of areas of land and water.
Public dialogue on valuing our environment
A public dialogue called ‘Naturally Speaking…’ was commissioned to explore how the public feel about concepts such as ecosystem services and the ecosystem approach. It focused on whether these terms reflect public aspirations for looking after nature and environmental policy. The reports, a film and animation can be found on Valuing Nature’s ‘Naturally Speaking…‘ webpage.
Working with local communities
Joined up action can be encouraged through an integrated local delivery approach. The Integrated Local Delivery framework supports those involved to tackle climate change and other environmental challenges with the local community. The framework gives the facilitator the tools they need to connect locally relevant government, charitable, corporate and environmental organisations to work together in support.
Talking about Our Place is a web guide published by Scottish Natural Heritage that aims to encourage local communities to get involved in the future of their landscape. It includes activities that will help communities to discuss what is important locally. It can be used help communities identify the ecosystem services their local landscape provides, understand how landscape changes affect these services, input more effectively to land-use decisions made by local authorities and other agencies, and advises on further sources of support.
Promoting learning in the natural outdoors
In 2011, Natural England commissioned an assessment of the benefits of learning outside the classroom in natural environments. This examines the economic value of the benefits associated with learning in natural environments. The qualitative evidence reviewed suggests there is a significant value, with benefits including educational attainment, awareness of environment, behavioural outcomes and attitudes to other children, social cohesion, health benefits, staff morale and a more attractive school.
Natural Connections was a project that aimed to increase the number of children experiencing the full range of benefits that come from learning in natural environments. While it closed formally in 2016, dialogue about this topic continues via blog page. The project was led by Natural England together with the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, and a large consortium of civil society organisations. It involved around 200 schools in areas with high index scores for multiple deprivation in Plymouth, Torbay, Bristol, Cornwall and North Somerset.
In 2022, the Department for Education launched the National Education Nature Park led by Esri UK and the Natural History Museum, working with the Royal Horticultural Society, the Royal Society, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), Learning through Landscapes, Manchester Metropolitan University and additional supporting partners. The project aims to make sure every young person in England has opportunities to develop a meaningful connection to nature, understand the concepts of climate change and biodiversity loss and feels able to do something about it.
Learning from project experience
The following resources provide examples of place-based projects with a strong emphasis on engaging communities.
Eddleston Water project in Scotland discuss how the team worked to engage the local community and achieve best practice in Catchment Restoration in this article.
The charity Shared Assets has produced a report detailing four examples of shared management of local land areas in England that are in private, charitable and local and national public ownership.
The Lewes and Ouse Valley eco-nomics (L&OVe) Project involved local people in valuing what nature does for them. This included involvement in the formation of a Neighbourhood Plan.
The interdisciplinary research project entitled Understanding and Acting Within Loweswater led the formation of a community-led forum to address the challenges posed by blue-green algae in a lake in Cumbria. A Policy and Practice Note produced by the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme summarises the findings.
A variety of funding schemes have helped place-based projects involve people in the process of looking after their natural environment. An example in England was the Access to Nature grants scheme within the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme. Access to Nature has published as a series of fourteen Learning Papers.
Citizen science
Citizen science means involving the public in the study of the natural environment. It can occur at the national or local level and is one aspect of involving people in the management of the natural environment.
A free practical guide covering when and how to use citizen science for monitoring the environment has been published by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, supported by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Choosing and Using Citizen Science is a toolkit aimed at people who are thinking about running a citizen science project.