Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
meet their respective needs is required if policy visions for ecological
change are to be turned into plans for the future development of locali-
ties. Ecological sustainability embodies a prior value judgement which
prioritises maintaining the health of ecosystems over the pursuit of social
and economic objectives that may present a threat to this. Its determi-
nism provides a basis for government to prohibit certain activities, to
give clear policy guidance on preferred approaches to meeting needs, and
to issue corresponding guidance on how spatial planning and decision-
making on land use can contribute to reducing levels of ecological stress.
However, it is not so well de
ned that professional planners would be
able to form visions of sustainable communities without public assis-
tance. To the contrary the involvement of those whom planned change
would affect, and who have knowledge of local conditions and of how
communities function with exploring what ecologically sustainable com-
munities would look like, is essential if the generalised visions advanced
in policy statements are to be converted into realistic proposals for how
ecological objectives might be realised. It is also needed if the outcomes
of planning to implement a concept that is lacking in precise de
nition
are to be accepted as legitimate.
98
Participation is also essential for the formation of regional and national
strategies for ecological change. It is only through working with members
of the public that strategic planners can gain access to the dispersed
knowledge that they would need to present an accurate picture of what
can be done to implement the government
s policies for reducing levels of
ecological stress.
99
Public involvement in open discussion of policy pro-
posals can assist with the identi
'
cation of means by which the objectives
of policy can be advanced, and, conversely, of possibilities that should be
discounted because of the negative effects that policy implementation
may have.
100
In addition, engagement with the public in places where
scope for development exist can assist with identifying whether there is a
potential for con
ict between the proposed land use and public values
including those held in places.
101
Development in such circumstances
98
Dobson,
'
Green Political Thought
'
, pp. 109
-
110; Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
,
pp. 203
-
4.
99
R. Lang,
in R. Lang (ed.) Integrated
Approaches to Resource Planning and Management (Calgary: The University of
Calgary Press, 1986), pp. 35
'
Achieving Integration in Resource Planning
'
-
7.
100
O. Woolley,
Trouble on the Horizon? Addressing Place-based Values in Planning for
Offshore Wind Energy
'
'
(2010) 22 Journal of Environmental Law,243
-
4.
101
Ibid
.
