How should rural policy be evaluated if it aims to foster community involvement in environmental management?

Abstract

This paper brings together different theoretical perspectives to propose an evaluation framework for policies which have the explicit aim to foster communities' involvement in the management of their natural environment in the context of sustainable rural development, such as the EU LEADER programme, Australia's Caring for Our Country, and UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Previous policy evaluations have oversimplified the complex social-ecological systems on which these policies are intended to act, have lacked specification of the policy level they address and were predicated on the assumption that policies can be designed to produce predictable outcomes. Based on a concept of 'complex realities' we developed a framework to guide the evaluation of policy effectiveness in social-ecological systems. This comprehensive framework provides the conceptual and theoretical context in which individual evaluation exercises for policy review and future programme design can be embedded. It goes beyond existing frameworks by allowing the identification of factors that explain how and why a policy tool was effective. It provides a structure within which datasets from different sources, relevant stakeholders and relationships can be identified and analysed in a multi level and multi-scale context. However, we emphasise that policy makers and evaluators' mindsets would have to change to accept uncertainty and the validity of various stakeholders' perceptions and evaluations. Abstract: This paper brings together different theoretical perspectives to propose an evaluation framework for policies which have the explicit aim to foster communities' involvement in the management of their natural environment in the context of sustainable rural development, such as the EU LEADER programme, Australia's Caring for Our Country, and UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Previous policy evaluations have over-simplified the complex social-ecological systems on which these policies are intended to act, have lacked specification of the policy level they address and were predicated on the assumption that policies can be designed to produce predictable outcomes. Based on a concept of 'complex realities' we developed a framework to guide the evaluation of policy effectiveness in social-ecological systems. This comprehensive framework provides the conceptual and theoretical context in which individual evaluation exercises for policy review and future programme design can be embedded. It goes beyond existing frameworks by allowing the identification of factors that explain how and why a policy tool was effective. It provides a structure within which datasets from different sources, relevant stakeholders and relationships can be identified and analysed in a multi-level and multi-scale context. However, we emphasise that policy makers and evaluators' mindsets would have to change to accept uncertainty and the validity of various stakeholders' perceptions and evaluations. 1How should rural policy be evaluated if it aims to foster community involvement in envi...

Assessing and Monitoring the Sustainability in Rural World Heritage Sites

“…Larcher et al [32] observed that for understanding the evolution of rural areas, participatory processes and civic engagement during decision making are essential. Using foster communities' involvement, Pranger et al [33] developed a framework to guide the evaluation of policy effectiveness in social-ecological systems and to manage the natural environment in sustainable rural development context. According to different authors, community involvement and public participation can be considered as vehicles to achieve sustainable environmental and development policy goals [34][35][36].…”

Assessing the Impact of EU Rural Development Programs on Tourism

“…In another study, Prager et al (2015) examined some aspects of the design and implementation of rural development project evaluation systems and identified a number of problematic issues. They found that many policies and lines of action had poorly defined and contradictory objectives, that there were difficulties in clearly defining the expected results of implementing this initiative, that measures overlapped due to their integrated, multisectoral approach, rendering it difficult to attribute causation and subsequent effect on a territory to any given measure, that there was still a need to determine the best time to conduct an evaluation, and that LAG managers rejected the idea of participating in self-evaluation processes that might reveal discrepancies in achieving objectives.…”

“…Furthermore, it may not be feasible to adapt a common evaluation model to all rural development projects because the evaluation system must be consistent with the hierarchical level at which the evaluation is to be conducted (European, national, regional, district, or municipal). Accordingly, evaluations depend to a large extent on the previously established objectives, and these will differ according to the factors (level, perspective) that influenced methodology design (Prager, Nienaber, Neumann, & Phillips, 2015).…”

Monitoring for Adaptive Management or Modernity: Lessons from recent initiatives for holistic environmental management

“…Below we discuss each issue in turn. Monitoring and evaluation can apply to any level of initiative for environmental management – from project to programme or policy: our review encompasses all these, since these are often connected or conflated (Prager et al , ) but we focus particularly on the project‐level.…”