Monday, June 18, 2012

Collaboration vs. Conflict


For decades the driving questions have been… “Jobs or environment?”  “Protection or degradation?”  Are those really the only choices?  Is the courtroom the only place one can go for answers?

More and more thinking people – both those who would label themselves first as business people or those who prefer the tag of environmentalist – are finding that the old ways just don’t work.  Our problems are too complex, the trade-offs too costly, and the win-lose just doesn’t cut the mustard.

Since its inception a mere five-plus years ago, the Endowment has sought the path of bringing together the brightest minds from a variety of perspectives to look for shared values and interests that will lead to collaboration, positive action, and results. 

Forest Conservation; Forest Health; and Water
It’s at the core of our work in the forest policy arena as displayed in the more than three-dozen organizations that comprise the Partnership for Southern Forestland Conservation who are working together to advance solutions to maintain landscape scale areas in working forests; it’s front and center in the work of the Forest Health Initiative where genetic scientists, conservation leaders, and public policy officials are considering the potential of modern biotechnology bound by common concern about the exploding impacts of pests and diseases as manifest in millions of acres of dying forests; and, it’s at the epicenter of our work in linking water consumers (all of us) with the source of our life-sustaining water – upstream forests and those who own and manage them.

Views from an Environmental Oracle
In a recent speech that accompanied his acceptance of an award from one of our partners in developing the National Conservation Easement Database – NatureServe – Bill Ruckelshaus encourages collaborative decision-making as we confront the ever-present and ever-evolving challenges of balancing environmental health and public freedoms.  Ruckelshaus, at nearly 80, has been at the forefront of America’s navigation of environmental regulations both in establishing them and having to implement them (having served as EPA’s 1st and 5th Administrator; and, working in private business with Weyerhaeuser Company) and is among the nation’s deepest thinkers on the topic. 

“We’ve got to try…a new approach to problem-solving, … [one that] relies on a resurgence of civic virtue and the resulting collaborative decision-making processes. … When you see two principals shaking hands … and everybody else is watching them do that, it’s like something magic has occurred. Instead of fighting each other, they’ve decided to work together. And that’s when progress starts.”
—Bill Ruckelshaus

Timing Hints: Peter Goldmark’s intro:  0:22-7:22; Mary Klein’s remarks:   7:34-15:36; Bill Ruckelshaus:  16:33-46:43

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