nature and democracy (and the Great Lakes)

One of the most thoughtful and seasoned minds and voices in the Great Lakes region is Jane Elder. In Michigan and Wisconsin, with the Sierra Club and Biodiversity Project, and in many other venues Jane has shaped and seen a great deal of Great Lakes environmental progress. She's also observed how political and personal promises to the Lakes are generally not kept.

Jane is launching a new effort to pioneer methods of governance that cope with rapidly changing environmental conditions and capitalize on the will of the public for a Great Lakes system that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren with pride. The paragraphs below and at the link are the first steps down a path toward a community discussion on how to promote a new kind of Great Lakes governance that keeps pace with, or even gets ahead of, our changing Earth and human society. It's worth thinking about.

Over the last year I’ve been talking with many colleagues about these challenges, and have proposed that we organize a working group to provide a forum for wider discussion and collaborative work. We see the need for some serious thought and discussion as to how we link these challenges in governance and literacy to the growing body of scientific knowledge that continues to warn us of the fragile state of Earth’s ecological resilience. The outcome of such a dialogue (at least an initial outcome) could be to craft specific recommendations for new strategies in ecosystem governance and management, starting in the U.S., and potentially Canada.  We also see the need to develop pilot projects and identify opportunities for priority response in highly vulnerable ecosystems. We’re suggesting that a U.S./Canada Forum on Nature and Democracy could serve as a base and a catalyst for a dialogue on these and other challenging questions.

Comments

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Can't you just see it coming,
the future is beautiful.
We face challenges, yet there are so many of us who have the foresight to nurture this Great place for the beauty that she is, and the heritage that is home.

Thank you for gathering the hearth.

"The challenges of grappling with complex jurisdictions, political will, funding, institutional accountability, scientific capacity and meaningful public involvement are not new in ecosystem management, and they certainly aren’t unique to the Great Lakes."

I like you Jane, your commonsense ambition, and your humility!