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Municipal Stewardship - a wetland conservation tool (21/03/05)

Good afternoon CEPA people:

On the 11th of March two towns, Labrador Central and Wabush, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, signed a Municipal Stewardship Agreement with the Provincial Government, making them the 16th and 17th towns to do so. A key characteristic of the agreement is that the actions of environmental protection that are discussed in it are voluntary. The agreement focuses on making local communities both the stewards and the beneficiaries of efforts at environmental protection. It is a potentially powerful tool in environmental conservation in that it attempts to encourage and harness local people's sense of connection to their environment and their willingness to protect their wetlands to maintain long-term quality of life for themselves, their community, and their children. It also encourages people to see themselves as caretakers - or stewards - of the natural environment.

There are two publications recently made known to me by a member of our Scientific and Technical Review Panel, Randy Milton, that will be of value to anyone with an interest in assessing the effectiveness of such stewardship agreements. The first is a 24-page methodological paper, "Auditing municipal wetlands stewardship in Newfoundland: a report outlining how to conduct an audit". This an evaluation model that can be used by independent auditors to evaluate a municipal wetland stewardship programme, assessing whether the money behind the programme has been well spent and whether the programme has been successful in achieving its goals. The second document is a report by a team that used the manual to carry out an audit in Newfoundland and Labrador Province to see whether the goals of the stewardship programme were being met in 11 participating communities. The two documents are available for download here http://www.whc.org/publications.htm under the heading "Municipal Wetlands Stewardship Audit Report 2003 (NFLD&LB)". The 8.4 MB PDF (Main
Report) is the audit report and the smaller PDF (Appendix) is the audit methodology document.

For further information on stewardship programmes in Canada look here http://www.gov.nf.ca/env/wildlife/outreachpp/outreach.htm.

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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