Abstract
Ours is not the first call to reform or rethink the way that we conceptualise and address cumulative impacts. Indeed, this subject has received much attention from both scholars and practitioners with near universal criticism of how we measure, assess, and regulate cumulative impacts. Progress has been made in Canada to rethink cumulative impacts, but there is still much room for improvement. In particular, the overwhelming emphasis in natural resource policy and practice has been how the cumulative impacts of industrial development influence only the environment. There has been little focus on the other elements of sustainability, our economy, and the social well-being and health of human populations. We argue that new directions forward must include a formal recognition of the health of ecosystems in combination with the needs of communities. In the final chapter, we provide a synthesis of key points that have emerged from earlier chapters and supporting literatures. We build on those past criticisms and recommendations and present a general framework for an integrative and regional approach to the assessment and management of cumulative impacts. We propose six principles and five elements that provide the structure for conceptualising an integrative regional cumulative impacts framework that can be adapted to unique regional circumstances. Even failing full construction and implementation of such a framework, we feel that these principles and elements are the starting point for dialogue on how to better address the broad suite of cumulative impacts that are occurring at ever greater rates across developing landscapes.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Allan, C., and G.H. Stankey (eds.). 2009. Adaptive environmental management—A practitioner’s guide. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.
Allen, W., O. Bosch, M. Kilvington, D. Harley, and I. Brown. 2001. Monitoring and adaptive management: Resolving social and organisational issues to improve information sharing in natural resource management. Natural Resources Forum 25: 225–233.
Armitage, D., F. Berkes, A. Dale, E. Kocho-Schellenberg, and E. Patton. 2011. Co-management and the co-production of knowledge: Learning to adapt in Canada’s Arctic. Global Environmental Change 21: 995–1004.
Axelsson, R., P. Angelstam, E. Degerman, S. Teitlbaum, K. Andersson, M. Elbakidze, and M.K. Drotz. 2013. Social and cultural sustainability: Criteria, indicators, verifier variables for measurement and maps for vizualisation to support planning. Ambio 42: 215–228.
Azzurro, E., P. Moschella, and F. Maynou. 2011. Tracking signals of change in Mediterranean fish diversity based on local ecological knowledge. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24885.
Bammer, G. 2005. Integration and implementation sciences: Building a new specialization. Ecology and Society 10(2): 6.
Bardecki, M.J. 1990. Coping with cumulative impacts: An assessment of legislative and administrative mechanisms. Impact Assessment Bulletin 8: 319–344.
Barnes, T.J., and M. Gertler (eds.). 1999. The new industrial geography: Regions, regulation and institutions. New York: Routledge.
Benson, M.H., and A.S. Garmestani. 2011. Can we manage for resilience? The integration of resilience thinking into natural resources management in the United States. Environmental Management 48: 392–399.
Berkes, F., J. Colding, and F. Carl. 2000. Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological Applications 10: 1251–1262.
Bonnell, S., and K. Storey. 2000. Addressing cumulative effects through strategic environmental assessment: A case study of small hydro development in Newfoundland, Canada. Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 2: 477–499.
Booth, A.L., and N.W. Skelton. 2011. Improving First Nations’ participation in environmental assessment processes: Recommendations from the field. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 29: 49–58.
Brown, V.A., J.A. Harris, and J.Y. Russell. 2010. Tackling wicked problems: Through the transdisciplinary imagination. London: Earthscan.
Brundtland, G.H., and World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our common future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burton, A.C., D. Huggard, E. Bayne, J. Schieck, P. Sólymos, T. Muhly, D. Farr, and S. Boutin. 2014. A framework for adaptive monitoring of the cumulative effects of human footprint on biodiversity. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 186: 3605–3617.
Cashore, B., G. Hoberg, M. Howlett, J. Rayner, and J. Wilson. 2001. In search of sustainability: British Columbia forest policy in the 1990s. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
CCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment). 2009. Regional strategic environmental assessment in Canada: Principles and guidance. Winnipeg: Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.
Charron, D.F. 2012. Ecohealth research in practice: Innovative applications of an ecosystem approach to health. New York: Springer.
Chetkiewicz, C., and A.M. Lintner. 2014. Getting it right in Ontario’s north: The need for regional strategic environmental assessment in the Ring of Fire [Wawangajing]. Toronto: Wildlife Conservation Society and Ecojustice.
Cocklin, C. 1993. What does cumulative effects analysis have to do with sustainable development? Canadian Journal of Regional Science 16: 453–479.
Cohn, J.P. 2008. Citizen science: Can volunteers do real research? BioScience 58: 192–197.
Conrad, C., and T. Daoust. 2008. Community-based monitoring frameworks: Increasing the effectiveness of environmental stewardship. Environmental Management 41: 358–366.
Conroy, M.J., and J.T. Peterson. 2013. Decision making in natural resource management: A structured, adaptive approach. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Dixon, J., and B.E. Montz. 1995. From concept to practice: Implementing cumulative impact assessment in New Zealand. Environmental Management 19: 445–456.
Doelle, M. 2012. CEAA 2012: The end of federal EA as we know it? Journal of Environmental Law and Practice 24: 1–17.
Dubé, M., B. Johnson, G. Dunn, J. Culp, K. Cash, K. Munkittrick, I. Wong, K. Hedley, W. Booty, D. Lam, O. Resler, and A. Storey. 2006. Development of a new approach to cumulative effects assessment: A northern river ecosystem example. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 113: 87–115.
Dubé, M.G. 2003. Cumulative effect assessment in Canada: A regional framework for aquatic ecosystems. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 23: 723–745.
Duinker, P.N., and L.A. Greig. 2006. The impotence of cumulative effects assessment in Canada: Ailments and ideas for redeployment. Environmental Management 37: 153–161.
Duinker, P.N., E.L. Burbidge, S.R. Boardley, and L.A. Greig. 2012. Scientific dimensions of cumulative effects assessment: Toward improvements in guidance for practice. Environmental Review 21: 40–52.
Environment Canada. 2012. Recovery strategy for the woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), boreal population, in Canada. Species at risk act recovery strategy series. Ottawa: Environment Canada.
Esteves, A.M., D. Franks, and F. Vanclay. 2012. Social impact assessment: The state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 30: 34–42.
Fernandez-Gimenez, M., H. Ballard, and V. Sturtevant. 2008. Adaptive management and social learning in collaborative and community-based monitoring: A study of five community-based forestry organizations in the western USA. Ecology and Society 13(2): 4.
Frame, T.M., T. Gunton, and J.C. Day. 2004. The role of collaboration in environmental management: An evaluation of land and resource planning in British Columbia. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 47: 59–82.
Gibson, R.B. 2012. In full retreat: The Canadian government’s new environmental assessment law undoes decades of progress. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 30: 179–188.
Gibson, R.B., H. Benevides, M. Doelle, and D. Kirchhoff. 2010. Strengthening strategic environmental assessment in Canada: An evaluation of three basic options. Journal of Environmental Law and Practice 20: 175–211.
Government of BC. 2002. Environmental Assessment Act, 2002 (S.B.C. 2002, C. 43). http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/02043_01. Accessed 30 Mar 2015.
Government of Canada. 2012. Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (S.C. 2012, C. 19, S. 52). http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-15.21/page-1.html. Accessed 12 Dec 2014.
Graham, J., B. Amos, and T. Plumptre. 2003. Principles for good governance in the 21st century. Policy brief no. 15—August 2003. Ottawa: Institute on Governance. http://iog.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2003_August_policybrief15.pdf. Accessed 21 Nov 2014.
Gunn, J.H., and B.F. Noble. 2009a. A conceptual basis and methodological framework for regional strategic environmental assessment (R-SEA). Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 27: 258–270.
———. 2009b. Integrating cumulative effects in regional strategic environmental assessment frameworks: Lessons from practice. Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 11: 267–290.
Hallstrom, L.K., M.W. Parkes, and N. Guelstorf. 2015. Convergence and diversity: Integrating encounters with health, ecological and social concerns. In Ecosystems, society and health: Pathways through diversity, convergence and integration, ed. L.K. Hallstrom, N. Guelstorf, and M.W. Parkes. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
Halseth, G., and A. Booth. 2003. ‘What worked well—what needs improvement’—Lessons in public consultation from British Columbia’s resource planning processes. Local Environment 8: 437–455.
Harriman, J.A., and B.F. Noble. 2008. Characterizing project and strategic approaches to regional cumulative effects assessment in Canada. Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 10: 25–50.
Harris-Roxas, B., V. Francesca, A. Bond, B. Cave, M. Divall, P. Furu, P. Harris, M. Soeberg, A. Wernham, and M. Winkler. 2012. Health impact assessment: The state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 30: 43–52.
Hirsch, P.D., W.M. Adams, J.P. Brosius, A. Zia, N. Bariola, and J.L. Dammert. 2011. Acknowledging conservation trade-offs and embracing complexity. Conservation Biology 25: 259–264.
Houle, J.N., and M.T. Light. 2014. The home foreclosure crisis and rising suicide rates, 2005 to 2010. American Journal of Public Health 104: 1073–1079.
Jackson, T. 2002. Consensus processes in land use planning in British Columbia: The nature of success. Progress in Planning 57: 1–90.
Jackson, T., and J. Curry. 2002. Regional development and land use planning in rural British Columbia: Peace in the woods? Regional Studies 36: 439–443.
Johnson, C.J. 2011. Regulating and planning for cumulative effects: The Canadian experience. In Cumulative effects in wildlife management: Impact mitigation, ed. P.R. Krausman and L.K. Harris, 29–46. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
———. 2013. Identifying ecological thresholds for regulating human activity: Effective conservation or wishful thinking? Biological Conservation 168: 57–65.
Kates, R.W., W.C. Clark, R. Corell, J.M. Hall, C.C. Jaeger, I. Lowe, J.J. McCarthy, H.J. Schellnhuber, B. Bolin, N.M. Dickson, S. Faucheux, G.C. Gallopin, A. Grubler, B. Huntley, J. Jager, N.S. Jodha, R.E. Kasperson, A. Mabogunje, P. Matson, H. Mooney, B. Moore III, T. O’Riordan, and U. Svedin. 2001. Sustainability science. Science 292: 641–642.
Kennett, S.A. 2002. Lessons from Cheviot: Redefining government’s role in cumulative effects assessment. In Cumulative environmental effects management: Tools and approaches, ed. A.J. Kennedy, 17–29. Calgary: Alberta Society of Professional Biologists.
Kinnear, S., Z. Kabir, J. Mann, and L. Bricknell. 2013. The need to measure and manage the cumulative impacts of resource development on public health: An Australian perspective. In Current topics in public health, ed. A. Rodriguez-Morales, 125–144. Rijeka: InTech Publishers.
Kirchhoff, D., H.L. Gardner, and L.J.S. Tsuji. 2013. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 and associated policy: Implications for Aboriginal people. The International Indigenous Policy Journal 4(3): 14–16.
Lawrence, R.L., and D.A. Deagen. 2001. Choosing public participation methods for natural resources: A context-specific guide. Society and Natural Resources 14: 857–872.
Lockwood, M., J. Davidson, A. Curtis, E. Stratford, and R. Griffith. 2010. Governance principles for natural resource management. Society and Natural Resources 23: 986–1001.
Luzar, J.B., K.M. Silvius, H. Overman, S.T. Giery, J.M. Read, and J.M.V. Fargoso. 2011. Large-scale environmental monitoring by Indigenous peoples. Bioscience 61: 770–782.
MacDonald, L. 2000. Evaluating and managing cumulative effects: Process and constraints. Environmental Management 26: 299–315.
Markey, S., G. Halseth, and D. Manson. 2012. Investing in place: Economic renewal in northern British Columbia. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Martin, J., M.C. Runge, J.D. Nichols, B.C. Lubow, and W.L. Kendall. 2009. Structured decision making as a conceptual framework to identify thresholds for conservation and management. Ecological Applications 19: 1079–1090.
Mascarenhas, M., and R. Scarce. 2004. “The intention was good”: Legitimacy, consensus-based decision making, and the case of forest planning in British Columbia, Canada. Society and Natural Resources 17: 17–38.
McLain, R.J., and R.G. Lee. 1996. Adaptive management: Promises and pitfalls. Environmental Management 20: 437–448.
McMichael, A. 2006. Population health as the “bottom line” of sustainability: A contemporary challenge for public health researchers. European Journal of Public Health 16: 579–581.
McMichael, A.J., B. Bolin, R. Costanza, G.C. Daily, C. Folke, K. Lindahl-Kiessling, E. Lindgren, and B. Niklasson. 1999. Globalization and the sustainability of human health: An ecological perspective. Bioscience 49: 205–210.
McShane, T.O., P. Hirsch, T. Chi Trung, A. Songorwa, A. Kinzig, B. Monteferri, D. Mutekanga, H. Van Thang, J.L. Dammert, M. Pulgar-Vidal, M. Welch-Devine, J.P. Brosius, P. Coppolillo, and S. O’Connor. 2011. Hard choices: Making tradeoffs between biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Biological Conservation 144: 966–972.
Mebratu, D. 1998. Sustainability and sustainable development: Historical and conceptual review. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 18: 493–520.
Noble, B., and J. Birk. 2011. Comfort monitoring? Environmental assessment follow-up under community-industry negotiated environmental agreements. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 31: 17–24.
Noble, B.F. 2009. Promise and dismay: The state of strategic environmental assessment systems and practices in Canada. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 29: 66–75.
Noble, B.F., J.S. Skwaruk, and R.J. Patrick. 2013. Toward cumulative effects assessment and management in the Athabasca watershed, Alberta, Canada. The Canadian Geographer 58: 315–328.
O’Faircheallaigh, C. 2007. Environmental agreements, EIA follow-up and Aboriginal participation in environmental management: The Canadian experience. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 27: 319–342.
Ottinger, G. 2009. Buckets of resistance: Standards and the effectiveness of citizen science. Science, Technology and Human Values 35: 244–270.
Parkes, M.W. 2015. ‘Just Add Water’: Dissolving barriers to collaboration and learning for health, ecosystems and equity. In Ecosystems, society and health: Pathways through diversity, convergence and integration, ed. L.K. Hallstrom, N. Guelstorf, and M.W. Parkes. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
Parkes, M.W., K.E. Morrison, M.J. Bunch, L.K. Hallstrom, R.C. Neudoerffer, H.D. Venema, and D. Waltner-Toews. 2010. Towards integrated governance for water, health and social–ecological systems: The watershed governance prism. Global Environmental Change 20: 693–704.
Parkes, M.W., L. Bienen, J. Breilh, L.-N. Hsu, M. McDonald, J.A. Patz, J.P. Rosenthal, M. Sahani, A. Sleigh, D. Waltner-Toews, and A. Yassi. 2005. All hands on deck: Transdisciplinary approaches to emerging infectious disease. EcoHealth 2: 258–272.
Partidário, M.R. 2012. Strategic environmental assessment better practice guide: Methodological guidance for strategic thinking in SEA. Lisbon: Portuguese Environment Agency and Redes Energéticas Nacionais.
Peterson, G.D., G.S. Cumming, and S.R. Carpenter. 2003. Scenario planning: A tool for conservation in an uncertain world. Conservation Biology 17: 358–366.
Pierce, J.T. 1992. Progress and the biosphere: The dialectics of sustainable development. The Canadian Geographer 36: 306–320.
Pohl, C. 2008. From science to policy through transdisciplinary research. Environmental Science and Policy 11: 46–53.
Polèse, M. 1999. From regional development to local development: On the life, death, and rebirth(?) of regional science as a policy relevant science. Canadian Journal of Regional Science XXII: 299–314.
Porter, M. 2004. Competitiveness in rural US regions: Learning and research agenda. Boston: Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School.
Rapport, D., R. Costanza, and A.J. McMichael. 1998. Assessing ecosystem health: Challenges at the interface of social, natural and health sciences. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13: 397–402.
Riesch, H., and C. Potter. 2014. Citizen science as seen by scientists: Methodological, epistemological, and ethical dimensions. Public Understanding of Science 23: 107–120.
Ross, W.A. 1998. Cumulative effects assessment: Learning from Canadian case studies. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 16: 267–276.
Roux, D.J., K.H. Rogers, H.C. Biggs, P.J. Ashton, and A. Sergeant. 2006. Bridging the science–management divide: Moving from unidirectional knowledge transfer to knowledge interfacing and sharing. Ecology and Society 11(1): 4.
Salmo Consulting. 2006. Developing and implementing thresholds in the northwest territories: A discussion paper. Yellowknife: Environment Canada.
Santomauro, D., C.J. Johnson, and M.P. Fondahl. 2012. Historical-ecological evaluation of the long-term distribution of woodland caribou and moose in central British Columbia. Ecosphere 3: 37.
Savoie, D. 1997. Rethinking Canada’s regional development policy: An Atlantic perspective. Ottawa: Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development.
Schneider, R.R., J.B. Stelfox, S. Boutin, and S. Wasel. 2003. Managing the cumulative impacts of land uses in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin: A modelling approach. Conservation Ecology 7(1): 8.
Simberloff, D. 1998. Flagships, umbrellas, and keystones: Is single-species management passé in the landscape era? Biological Conservation 83: 247–257.
Steenberg, J.W.N., P.N. Duinker, L.V. Damme, and K. Zielke. 2013. Criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management in a changing climate: An evaluation of Canada’s National Framework. Journal of Sustainable Development 6: 32–64.
Timoney, K., and P. Lee. 2001. Environmental management in resource-rich Alberta, Canada: First world jurisdiction, third world analogue. Journal of Environmental Management 63: 387–405.
Tipa, G., and R.V. Welch. 2006. Co-management of natural resources: Issues of definition from an Indigenous community perspective. Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 42: 373–391.
Walters, C. 1986. Adaptive management of renewable resources. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Waltner-Toews, D. 2004. Ecosystem sustainability and health: A practical approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waltner-Toews, D., J.J. Kay, and N.-M.E. Lister. 2008. The ecosystem approach: Complexity, uncertainty, and managing for sustainability. New York: Columbia University Press.
Weber, M., N. Krogman, and T. Antoniuk. 2012. Cumulative effects assessment: Linking social, ecological, and governance dimensions. Ecology and Society 17(2): 22.
Wenzel, G.W. 1999. Traditional ecological knowledge and Inuit: Reflections on TEK research and ethics. Arctic 52: 113–124.
Westgate, M.J., G.E. Likens, and D.B. Lindemayer. 2013. Adaptive management of biological systems: A review. Biological Conservation 158: 128–139.
White, L., and B.F. Noble. 2013. Strategic environmental assessment for sustainability: A review of a decade of academic research. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 42: 60–66.
Whitelaw, G., H. Vaughan, B. Craig, and D. Atkinson. 2003. Establishing the Canadian community monitoring network. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 88: 409–418.
Wilcox, B.A., A.A. Aguirre, and P. Horwitz. 2012. Ecohealth: Connecting ecology, health, and sustainability. In New directions in conservation medicine: Applied cases of ecological health, ed. A.A. Aguirre, R.S. Ostfeld, and P. Daszak, 17–32. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, C.J., Gillingham, M.P., Halseth, G.R., Parkes, M.W. (2016). A Revolution in Strategy, Not Evolution of Practice: Towards an Integrative Regional Cumulative Impacts Framework. In: Gillingham, M., Halseth, G., Johnson, C., Parkes, M. (eds) The Integration Imperative. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22123-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22123-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22122-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22123-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)