Environment and Natural Resources Management – ENRM-
Overview Course Panama City
June 23 to 27, 2008
¡Welcome, Bienvenidos! Victor Bullen
Bureau Environmental Officer USAID/LAC
Introductions
Please share with us: • Your name and where you are
from • Brief description of your current
role • One reason to be in this course • One fun/interesting thing about
you
Start up activity
Individually • Think about your role as an Environment Officer in
USAID. • What are the most exciting aspects of your job? • What are the least exciting aspects of your job? • Make some notes
Start up activity
At your tables • Share your responses at your table and identify
common themes • Write a slogan than represents the role of an
Environment Officer at USAID • Chart your slogan and be ready to share it with the
rest of the group. • You have 10 min.
Environment Officer Competencies Technical: 1. Has sound understanding of relevant ENRM issues
and approaches and understands their implications. 2. Considers sustainability issues and challenges when
proposing, designing and/or managing ENRM activities
3. Ensures environmental compliance for ENRM activities
4. Considers linkages with all other development sectors when proposing, designing or managing ENRM activities
Environment Officer Competencies Professional: 5. Develops effective working relationships in the design and
management of ENRM programs 6. Knows how to work in and/or manage an effective team 7. Monitors, evaluates and reports on projects 8. Understands USAID structure, policies, priorities, and culture
and knows how to navigate the bureaucracy 9. Exhibits genuine curiosity and is a permanent learner 10. Exhibits ethics and conviction about the environment and
development and acts with integrity when addressing ENRM issues.
Objectives • Make a compelling case for ENRM’s
role in international development as a platform for accomplishing multiple development objectives.
• Apply integrated ENRM models, approaches and techniques to Agency programming – examples include IWRM, Nature, Wealth and Power, Landscape Conservation, value chain strategies.
• Apply cross-sectoral thinking, program design and tools.
Objectives Cont. • Apply principles of
sustainability.
• Understand and work with USAID's Foreign Assistance Framework, Congressional earmarks, and other USAID Policies and Regulations related to ENRM.
• Identify, access and use information resources relevant to ENRM activities.
Agenda
Day One: The Basics • Welcome • Start up Activity • Objectives, Agenda,
Guidelines • Framing Current State and
Trends of Environment • Systems Thinking and
Development • Introduction to Integrated
Approaches • Journal • Day Feedback • Reception/dinner
Day Two: An Integrated Approach to Earmarks and the FAF
• Institutional and Legislative Frameworks Impacting USAID Programming in the Environment Sector – Institutional and Legislative
Frameworks relevant to ERNM sector
– Earmarks Relevant to ENRM Sector
• Applying Agency Indicators, Earmarks and Reg 216.
• Journal • Day Feedback
Agenda
Day Three: Field Trip
• Setting up • Visit to Chagres National Park • Visit to SERVIR – CATHALAC
Day Four: Sustainability
• Sustainability: – World Café – Case Study Sustainability
Perspectives • Tools for an Integrated
Approach • Journal • Feedback • Focus group: Competencies
Agenda
Day Five: Bringing it all together
• Start up the day • Bringing it all together • Additional Resources • Bringing it all together-
current/future work – networking
• Feedback / Training evaluation
• Closing
Guidelines for Working Together
At your tables • What are 2 important guidelines or behaviors we
want to embrace to make this week successful? • You have 3 minutes • Be ready to report out
Housekeeping
Environmental trends: Causes & consequences
What is the state of the Environment in your country?
“ Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history.” Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment 2005
• Land use change • Habitat fragmentation • Increasing energy use • Plant & animal
introductions • Plant & animal
overexploitation • Pollution • Global climate change
Trends
• Demographic changes • Economic growth • Sociopolitical factors • Science & technology • Culture & religion • Global climate change
Drivers of trends
Loss of forest cover
Affected by: – Basic livelihood needs – Expansion of populations – Development of markets
Results in: - Biodiversity loss - Reduced carbon sequestration - Soil degradation - Reduction in air & water
quality
Increasing energy use (Million tons of oil equivalent)
Affected by: – Population growth – Economic growth – Technology development – Cultural values about
consumption
Results in: – Global climate change – Pollution – Environmental degradation
Affected by: – Population growth and location – Food and diet choices – Urbanization – Water pollution – Inadequate infrastructure – Global climate change
Results in: – Food shortages – Resource conflicts – Reduced environmental flows
Freshwater scarcity
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Global climate change
Affected by: – Greenhouse gas emissions
• Burning of fossil fuels • Deforestation
Results in: – Impacts on all regions and
sectors!!
In Bolivia.. – Fresh water stress – More flooding and
avalanches – Negative impact on tourism
At your tables discuss:
• How are these environmental trends impacting our development work?
• What are one or two concrete ways to address these environmental trends and drivers through our work?
• After 15 minutes, be ready to share your ideas.
Trends Strategy
Increased resource conflicts Conflict mitigation; enhancing livelihood options
More disasters and extreme events
Early warning systems; disaster response planning
Increased need for efficient use of water and other resources
Demand management; efficiency incentives
Increased urbanization Urban planning/management; programs supporting rural livelihoods
Program development in a changing environment
• The environment is changing rapidly
• Environmental conditions affect the success of development programs
• Development activities affect the environment
BREAK
Systems Thinking
Table Exercise: Creating a conceptual model
• Each table has a set of 12 cards with words on them, a flip chart and markers
• Working as a group, organize the cards on a flip chart using symbols to show relationships and flow
• You have five minutes!!!
Key concepts
• There are inherent connections across environment and development sectors
• There are many different ways to organize a system and to understand these interactions
• Systems thinking in development might be chunked into sectors: environment, governance, economic and social… but these are related and integral to the system
Systems Thinking
System… a set of inter-related elements that change over time
Why are systems important? Why should we consider them?
Malaria in Borneo - 1950s
Malaria outbreak
Eaten by cats
Eaten by lizards
Roofs fall down
Increase thatch-eating caterpillars
Kill parasitic wasps
Reduce malaria
Kill mosquitoes Spray DDT
Cats die
Rats increase
WHO parachutes live cats
Threat of plague
Systems are complex inter-connections separated by time and space
A system approach matters because….
• Presents the big picture – the forest and the trees! • Helps us manage for the long term, optimizing
benefits over generations not years • Identifies multiple entry points for effective
interventions • Identifies trade-offs and choices so costs can be
shared equitably • Identifies stakeholders/partners and a platform for
joint action
Reductionist Approach Sum of parts defines system
Systems Approach System properties emerge from interaction among parts
Focuses on parts Focuses on wholes
Context narrow, limited Context broad, represents nature/reality
One ‘truth’ or best answer Multiple truths and answers
Linear causality, additive effects A causes B
Circular causality, A causes B causes C causes A
Nature
Wealth
Power
People
Applying Systems Thinking: Map the Context
Protected
ecosystems
Cash crops
A Systems Approach in Practice Community-managed forests
Credit
Private sector investment
Communal Development Plans
Civil Society and Advocacy
Forestry permits
Systems Exercise
1. Stand in a circle with other participants. 2. Get a nametag and card from the box and read your
nametag out loud. 3. Put on your nametag and silently read your card.
4. Listen to a story from the perspective of your assigned role.
5. Retaining your end of the yarn, explain your issue while illustrating your connection to another stakeholder by tossing them the ball of yarn.
• What happened here? What do you notice about these connections?
• Did everyone receive the ball of yarn? Which stakeholders are not in the web? Why?
• Which stakeholders have more connections? • Did you hear social, economic, environment,
governance dimensions? What are they? • What are the implications of these inter-relationships
and interdependencies for development activities? • Are there any obvious points of intervention that would
help address the development goal?
De-brief
Systems Summary
• Identifying issues and stakeholders identifies leverage points
• More leverage points = more success
• Systems are complex • Connections across
sectors • Multiple options for
influencing change within a system