Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
state, provincial, municipal, and ENGO representatives. The IJC also heard this
directly through their community workshops. As one IJC staff member reflected:
[O]ne issue that definitely was on the table [at the workshops] was, “Well,
are you bringing money?” because if you're bringing money, you're bringing
advantages that would not exist within the region. And if you're not bringing
money, we're not quite sure that you're bringing advantages, and perhaps, we
can cover the ground ourselves.
Similarly, a member from the Gulf of Maine Council noted in an interview that
consistent funding could be a key role for the IJC at the watershed level. She also
commented, however, that their binational organization agreed early on that lack
of funds would not ruin their relationship:
When we entered this agreement, we treated it like a marriage . . . we agreed
to cooperate regardless of the ability of the other countries' ability to bring
equal funds to the table.
For the Gulf of Maine Council, this clear understanding proved prudent;
considering that the contributions of funds are strikingly asymmetrical, with
American counterparts who contribute approximately 80 percent of the funds to
the organization. Despite this imbalance, the Council has operated with noted
success for more than two decades. How (and if) the IJC involvement in the
transboundary region will help level the playing field, and enhance the institutional
capacity of the watershed group, is yet to be seen.
Although respondents listed financial support as a key asset that the Watersheds
Initiative could provide for local groups, the IJC staff report that they have not
received adequate institutional/financial support to meet their goals. As one senior
staff member reflected:
We don't have much money, so we don't really know quite how this is all
going to work out. Our instinct is that this is the wave of the future. These
different levels of organizations, often organized around the watershed because
there's a lot of issues that you're just forced to deal with being in the watershed,
but we don't really know how it's going to work. Some of it is instinctual,
and we can't really prove that it is working, or it's going anywhere. That's
sort of our gut. We're trying to figure out where we play, where we fit in.
Despite the financial hurdles, the IJC staff remain optimistic that the Watersheds
Initiative is the right role for their organization.
The right change?
Not all, however, believe that the IJC should expand its role beyond their
traditional fact-finding and reference roles. For example, LeMarquand (1993,
p. 61) maintains that:
Search WWH ::
Custom Search