Photo by Cole Breiland

Lakehead professor promotes collective action to help maintain our ecological relationships

Anthony Marrelli

Argus

With ecological issues becoming a forefront for humanity’s survival in the future, it has become increasingly aware that problems like these are not confined to borders or nationalistic ideals.

Lakehead Professor of Forestry and the Forest Environment Peggy Smith presented a lecture entitled “Putting the Heart into Continental Partnerships: Collective Action and Ecological Integrity”.

Smith outlined that when people attempt to move away from a human centered approach to ecological integrity, it is important to understand humans cannot avoid thinking in terms of our own interests.

She outlined that breaking down nationalistic interests is a difficult task, and is also an unrealistic goal for the near future.

Therefore, she proposes that collective action, and the individual’s right to organize, can help break down these barriers and create a push towards ecological integrity as a public good that is managed on a community basis.

The importance in creating such collective action is not to breed more cynicism and create an inertia that continues this trend. Instead, it is time to work with communities in a manner that is personable and energetic.

These community stakeholders, however, must be different than the current Iron Triangle of ecological management that involve only businesses, government and influential stakeholders. Dr. Smith’s work is heavily influenced by Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, author of ‘Governing the Commons’.

The people’s right to action is a main principle of Ostrom’s work and is a large part of what Dr. Smith believes is the future of collective ecological management. Governments must recognize that citizens have the right to organize their own systems, and at the same time, citizens must understand the ability to do so.

An important part of the right to organize are time, distance and cost issues. Transparency is the key to a well-defined organization, and using the latest technologies to bring communities together to manage our ecological services and systems is the best way to keep public interests within the Iron Triangle.

She discussed the possibility of achieving ecological integrity if only governments embrace local communities.

This is not occurring because of a collective action problem; individuals must begin to work together in preserving a public good, which in this case is ecological integrity.

The lecture was held in tandem with the Heart of the Continent Partnership, a cross border organization made of many communities in the border lakes region of Ontario and Minnesota.

The mission of the organization is to build relationships between communities within these regions, and aid in steering local governments with practical strategies to help protect ecological integrity.

The important difference being Minnesota’s high amount of privately owned land and North Western Ontario’s high amount of public land. This difference creates a unique learning experience for both regions that are in different land ownership situations.

The lecture did provide those in attendance with the understanding that as citizens we can enact change, and through this we become accountable for what we are doing to Earth, which is our life support system.

Humans are not responsible for creating Earth’s systems and resources; we are late in evolutionary history. Despite this fact, people have become increasingly responsible for Earth’s health and future. The most important aspect in ensuring Earth’s future is to see ourselves, humans, as Earth residents with global interests.