As Virginia experiences continued economic and population growth, it will confront new and increasingly complex environmental issues. It is crucial to our future that these issues be resolved in ways that effectively balance environmental protection with citizens' desire for economic development. In that regard, this article calls attention to an emerging approach to managing the natural environment that promises to offer this balance and to challenge Virginians to actively explore its potential.

In response to the increasing complexity of environmental problems, protracted legal disputes, constrained government budgets, and recent movements toward deregulation and property rights protection, citizens, firms, nonprofits, and governments across the nation have sought more effective, more efficient, and more publicly accepted environmental management. The approaches that have emerged from their efforts are variously called "civic environmentalism," "integrated resource management," "ecosystem management," "watershed management," and "negotiated agreements." Collectively we shall refer to them as collaborative environmental management (CEM). CEM has several key features: a strong scientific base, extensive involvement of stakeholders throughout the process, a proactive and holistic approach to issues, and the integration of a wide range of regulatory and non-regulatory solutions.

These collaborative approaches to environmental policy and planning are not the result of a single government mandate or academic theory. Rather, they have evolved over the past few decades based on experience, changes in the nature of environmental problems, and the changing political and economic contexts for environmental management.

In the 1970s large government budgets and heavy reliance on strict prescriptive regulations were the basis for most US environmental policies and statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. These "command and control" approaches were appropriate for the time and contributed to the reduction of conventional pollution (i.e., industrial and municipal discharges of major air and water pollutants). Still, the interests in environmental management seemed to be divided into three separate camps: the regulator, the regulated, and public-interest environmental groups. Conflicts among the three usually resulted in litigation so that this approach was protracted, contentious, and inefficient.

While most environmental protection policies survived the economic recession and the "conservative revolution" of the 1980s, it became apparent that growing federal budget deficits and a political movement toward deregulation and protection of private property rights meant that effective environmental management could no longer rely on the tools of the past. Public land agencies like the Forest Service engaged in extensive multiple-use resource management planning during

the 1980s and found that even with traditional public participation, they were often faced with appeals and lawsuits. Toward the late 1980s, the growth of non-government public interest groups and increasing use of environmental negotiation and alternative dispute resolution, as opposed to litigation, set the stage for greater public involvement and communication in resolution of environmental management issues.

The 1980s also brought increased awareness of the complexity of environmental problems. Most remaining air and water pollution problems came from diffuse non-point sources, and natural resources management methods were recognized as too fragmented to protect biodiversity. New, more comprehensive methods were needed to address these highly complex problems effectively. In response, the 1990s have seen new collaborative approaches emerging in nearly every aspect of environmental management from pollution control (so-called negotiated regulation) to local land-use decisions and hazardous facility siting to public-land management to new methods of ecosystem and watershed management.

WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?

Collaborative environmental management involves four basic elements:

1. Early and extensive engagement of stakeholders in the process of planning, decision making, and implementation. Stakeholders are those effecting change in the environment and those affected by it.
2. Strong and sound scientific information and analysis on which to base decisions.
3. Holistic or "contextualized" understanding of environmental problems and proactive efforts to resolve and prevent them.
4. Integration of a wide range of creative solutions to problems, such as flexible regulation, economic incentives and compensation, negotiated agreements, voluntary actions, and educational programs.

The goal of collaborative environmental management is to arrive at better decisions both for the stakeholders and for the environment, decisions that are more effective and efficient in managing the environment and more acceptable to the wide range of interests involved. It goes beyond traditional public participation and arbitration as it aims to foster "collaborative learning" by stakeholders so they more fully understand the perspectives of other interests. It may also lead to more creative solutions than traditional approaches, as collaborative learning uncovers new options.

Although the approach has not been written into lawmost major environmental laws (Clean Air Act, 1990; Clean Water Act, 1987; National Forest Management Act, 1976; Endangered Species Act, 1984) have not been amended for many years it has been adopted in administrative orders. For example,

• In 1992 National Forest Director Dale Robertson declared that ecosystem management principles would guide National Forest management
• In 1993 the EPA adopted the Watershed Protection Approach as the general principle for water management, which was reinforced in Vice President Al Gore's Clean Water Initiative announced in late 1997.
• In 1995 President Bill Clinton announced his "Reinventing Environmental Regulation" policy for negotiated regulation in pollution control.
• Other federal policies for habitat conservation planning under the Endangered Species Act, wetlands mitigation banking, watershed trading, brownfields redevelopment, and other programs have all incorporated elements of collaborative management.

State agencies have also recognized the advantages of collaboration. In Virginia, for example, the Department of Conservation and Recreation (VDCR) works with landowners for stewardship of biodiversity and control of nonpoint source pollution on private lands. The Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) has worked with industries to implement creative pollution prevention strategies.

Nongovernment organizations are also important participants in collaborative programs. The Nature Conservancy's Bioreserve program manages several bioreserves in Virginia and works with federal and state agencies, local groups, and industries in their management. Land trusts have developed in several areas of the state, using conservation easements and other compensation and acquisition methods for preserving farmland and natural areas.

The growing numbers of these wide ranging experiences, which are largely uncoordinated and collectively unrecognized, have led many to conclude that collaborative management is "practice in search of a theory." Indeed, most of the research reported in the literature consists of case studies of specific projects that lack an evaluative component. Further research must critically evaluate experiences to discover what works and what does not if we are to realize the potential of CEM.

Several diverse examples of collaborative environmental management in Virginia illustrate both the methods used and the promise of the approach. The following discussion highlights several of these cases.

ECOSYSTEM AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN VIRGINIA

Chesapeake Bay Program

In 1983 the states of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania; the District of Columbia; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and the Chesapeake Bay Commission signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement, creating a regional approach "to improve and protect water quality and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay estuarine system." The 1987 amendments to the agreement set several goals, including a 40 percent reduction in nutrient pollution in the bay. The 1992 amendments to the agreement committed the signatories to implement, among other things, strategies in each of the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay that would result in a reduction of nutrients to levels necessary to support living resources in both the bay and its tributaries.

This collaborative effort involves all levels of government, the private sector, landowners, and citizens. Three governors, 40 members of Congress, thousands of state legislators and local elected officials, 13 federal agencies, four interstate agencies, and more than 700 citizen groups all play an active role in the restoration program. The Chesapeake Bay Program has created more than 50 subcommittees and work groups to ensure that all interests are represented.

Virginia's principal programs to implement the agreement involve the 1988 Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA), the 1992 policy for development of Tributary Strategy Plans, and the 1997 Virginia Water Quality Improvement Act. In passing the CBPA, the General Assembly realized that only through effective and widespread land use controls to reduce nonpoint source pollution could the goals and objectives of the agreement be achieved; it also realized that local governments must play the leading role in implementing those controls.

To assist local governments in this task, the act established the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Board (CBLAB), with staff support from a new Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department (CBLAD). While the effectiveness of the overall program has not been assessed, the interstate Chesapeake Bay Program has demonstrated improvement in bay quality through its extensive monitoring program. It is likely that changes in land use and development practices brought about by the Virginia program have contributed to this improvement. All Virginia Chesapeake Bay localities have incorporated water quality considerations into their stormwater management and land use plans and ordinances. The program has increased the use of vegetated buffers along shorelines and riparian areas to reduce pollutant loading. CBLAD's Polecat Creek Water Quality Monitoring and Evaluation Project has been testing the effects of the regulations and is showing positive results. Between 1991 and 1997, the Agricultural Conservation Planning Assistance program has resulted in 2,800 new farm conservation plans covering 162,500 acres.

The Virginia program has been effective because of three factors closely linked to the collaborative approach: (a) a clear set of regulations and flexibility in working with localities to achieve compliance in the most effective way; (b) availability of nonregulatory technical assistance and implementation grants for localities to finance their compliance; and (c) an effective partnership involving the state, the planning districts, the local governments, and the development communities.

Elizabeth River restoration

Community values and priorities have to be considered along with the technical aspects of any environmental issue if we are to target resources to solve problems in a manner that is both efficient and responsive to the desires of the public. All across the United States, communities have attempted to integrate local values with environmental science through the use of "comparative risk assessment." In this process relatively large numbers of people representing a wide variety of community interests attempt to assess the various environmental risks confronting a jurisdiction, negotiate a ranking of those risks to identify which should be attacked first, and devise creative, widely agreed to strategies for reducing risks. Through this process, the relationship among social, economic, and environmental issues can be seen and holistic solutions devised. The process itself can raise public awareness of both environmental issues and shared community values.

One excellent example of the use of this promising approach in Virginia is the Elizabeth River Project. The Elizabeth River is one of the most developed and polluted tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay. In 1993 a group of citizens created a voluntary organization intended "to form a partnership among the communities and all who earn their living from the river; to raise appreciation of its economic, ecological, and recreational importance; and to restore the Elizabeth River system to the highest practical level of environmental quality."

This group grew into a large coalition of public and private interests who mobilized the resources to study every aspect of the river's health. By 1996 this group had devised a Watershed Action Plan detailing 18 steps to address five areas of concern along the river. The plan stressed voluntary cooperation among government, industry, and citizen groups to solve specific problems. It met with such broad acceptance that it attracted funding from state government, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the U.S. EPA, and several local governments. Although the plan is still in its implementation stages, the fact that so many actors were mobilized to focus on a limited number of problems suggests a large step forward.

National forest management

The 1976 National Forest Management Act (NFMA) required the U.S. Forest Service to develop Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMP) for each of the National Forests, including Virginia's George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. These forests amount to 1.8 million acres or about 7 percent of the commonwealth. The Forest Service is currently developing a revised plan for the Jefferson portion of the forest and is applying a "collaborative planning and stewardship approach." They describe the approach as follows:

Most of us are familiar with top down planning, in which the few decide for the many and change comes from the outside.Collaborative planning is different. It emerges locally, bringing together communities of place and interest. It honors a full spectrum of values, holds everyone responsible for success, and begins with educating one another and discovering common ground. There is no one leader and no one is excluded from sitting at the table. Together, the group envisions the future and creates a plan to get there. For those paralyzed by resource use conflicts, collaboration may be a way to help defuse polarization and start discussing issues in conference rooms instead of courtrooms. Collaboration works, but it is not always quick or easy. It means taking the time to reach out to people, to build trust, seek common ground and compromise, and forge integrated solutions.

Forest Service officials turned to a collaborative approach after their planning for the Virginia Forests in the 1980s taught them valuable lessons. From 1982 to 1985, the Jefferson National Forest developed its first Land Resource and Management Plan, relying on draft document review and comment as its principal means of public participation. This approach was not successful, as the final plan was greeted with several appeals. Most of the appeals were granted by the National Forest Service headquarters, and the plan was amended. One amendment required an annual conference in which Forest Service staff members could report on progress on plan implementation and stakeholders could discuss National Forest issues. After 10 years of annual conferences, the Forest Service has built a diverse and informed constituency, and the public's issues and concerns about the National Forest are well known.

If the initial planning effort for the Jefferson National Forest stumbled, planning for the George Washington National Forest (GWNF) fell flat on its face. With minimal public participation, the Forest Service completed its Final GWNF Plan in 1986. Based on the range of public outcry and appeals, the national headquarters directed the forest supervisor to scrap the plan and start over. To its credit, the Forest Service initiated a "negotiation" process involving a dozen diverse interest representatives, from timber production groups to local landowners to Earth First and other environmental organizations. With the help of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation at the University of Virginia, the group met over a two year period and developed the groundwork for the 1993 GWNF Plan, which was approved without appeal. The final plan reflected many of the principles of collaborative ecosystem management.

Nature preserves

The establishment and management of natural areas were once government enterprises only. However, limits on government budgets have led to new measures and new partners to grow and enhance areas under protection. For example, Virginia's Natural Area Preserves System was established in the late 1980s to protect some of the most significant natural areas in the commonwealth. The system now includes 21 dedicated natural areas totaling 11,833 acres. Most are owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), but lands owned by local governments, universities, and The Nature Conservancy are also part of the system. Natural area dedication works in much the same way as a conservation easement by placing legally binding restrictions on future activities on a property.

DCR also advises other levels of government and private owners about stewardship of natural areas through ecological management, which includes conservation planning, habitat restoration, hydrologic restoration, prescribed burning, research, and monitoring. A variety of conservation tools, including conservation easements, registry, designation, and dedication, are utilized through these partnerships to protect public and privately owned natural areas identified through a natural heritage inventory process.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) illustrates how nonprofit groups have complemented government programs for preservation of natural areas. Not only is it an effective partner in state and federal programs, but it operates an extensive bioreserve program of its own. Supported by nearly 1 million members and 2,000 corporate associates, TNC manages 1,600 preserves and has helped protect 10 million acres in the United States, including 27 preserves and 200,000 acres in Virginia.

One of TNC's most ambitious projects is the Clinch Valley Bioreserve, one of TNC's 40 global "Last Great Places." The bioreserve encompasses the watersheds of the Clinch, Powell, and Holston rivers, extending more than 2,200 square miles across seven Southwest Virginia counties. This is the most ecologically diverse region of Virginia, containing more than 400 rare plants and animals, 22 of which are federally listed as endangered. No area in the mid-Atlantic or northeastern United States has comparable biological diversity.

But management of the Clinch Valley Bioreserve is not just about its biological resources. The guiding principle for the project is "sustainable development," and TNC has partnered with local communities, universities, the coal and forest products industries, farmers, and other landowners to plan for small business development as well as stream restoration and habitat protection. TNC's guiding principle is: "Local communities will not join in conservation efforts unless their economies can grow and prosper. Just as biological diversity is a measure of a healthy ecosystem, economic diversity is a measure of a healthy community."

NEGOTIATED REGULATION AND POLLUTION PREVENTION

CEM has also been applied to pollution control efforts. In recognition of some of the deficiencies of strict "command and control," President Clinton announced his Reinventing Environmental Regulation initiatives in March 1995 to test negotiated regulation strategies. Perhaps the flagship initiative is the "XL for Communities" program, which is designed to give "the regulated community the opportunity to demonstrate excellence and leadership . . . through locally designed and directed alternative environmental management strategies which achieve greater levels of environmental quality."

Projects involve regulatory flexibility in exchange for enforceable commitment by a company or community to achieve better environmental protection than would be obtained through full compliance with existing or future regulations. Each project involves "stakeholder participation in developing effective community based environmental strategies."

Merck & Co. Project XL agreement

One of the first pilot XL projects to achieve final agreement involved Merck & Co., Inc.'s Stonewall pharmaceutical plant near Elkton, Virginia. The plant, which employs 800 people, will invest $10 million to convert its coal burning power to natural gas, cutting its overall emissions by 20 percent. The company will cap emissions below current actual levels to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions to protect visibility and reduce acid deposition in nearby Shenandoah National Park.

In exchange, Merck will not need prior approval from EPA or VDEQ for changes that cause emission increases so long as they stay below the caps. The project involved a stakeholder team including representatives from EPA, VDEQ, the communities of Elkton and Rockingham County, the National Park Service, and regional environmental organizations. Public involvement was facilitated through newsletters; briefings for the public, national environmental groups, and Merck employees; public meetings and hearings; and a public comment period on EPA's proposed site specific rule making. The final rule making was published in the Federal Register in October 1997.

Voluntary Pollution Prevention

Since the 1990 Pollution Prevention Act, EPA has worked with industry to implement voluntary agreements for pollution prevention or reducing waste where it originates, generally through increased efficiency in the use of raw materials, energy, water, and land. Since 1990 EPA has developed 28 different partnership programs collectively referred to as "Partnerships for the Environment." The partnership programs, which include small and large businesses, citizen groups, state and local governments, universities, and trade associations, were established to demonstrate that voluntary goals and commitments can achieve real environmental results in a timely and cost effective way.

For several years VDEQ has worked with Virginia industries in pollution prevention. The Pollution Prevention Roundtable, with industrial and governmental representatives, shares ideas about and experiences with pollution prevention. One notable partnership program is the "Businesses for the Bay," a group of 37 businesses within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including some of its largest pollution sources. The members have committed to implementing pollution prevention in daily operations and reducing chemical releases into the bay. Each member business develops its own annual pollution prevention goals and monitors progress. Personnel from larger facilities act as mentors for other businesses. It should be noted that the actual benefits of the program to the bay are unknown, and clearly, one objective of the program is to give members some good public relations exposure. Still, voluntary partnership programs such as this are positive steps as industries commit themselves to a higher level of environmental citizenship.

Brownfields redevelopment

Brownfields are idled or abandoned industrial and commercial sites and facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Strategies of EPA's Brownfields Initiative include funding pilot programs and other research efforts, clarifying liability issues, entering into public private partnerships, developing job training programs, and addressing environmental justice concerns relating to brownfields. To succeed in returning brownfields to productive use, governments, industry, and citizens must cooperate.

Two of EPA's 64 national pilot projects are in Virginia. The Cape Charles-Northampton County Pilot aims to develop the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park. The pilot is assessing the extent of contamination on a 155acre former dump and rail yard site and designing a remediation strategy. Once the project is completed, the redeveloped brownfields will include the eco-industrial park, restored wetlands, a nature trail and environmental education facility, and a tertiary sewage treatment system. The Richmond Pilot project aims to catalyze the process of reclaiming vacant business sites. The project is using Richmond's Neighborhood Teams Process, a citizen empowerment program, to bring host residential communities into the reuse decision making process and is developing and implementing a local program performance evaluation system.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

The aim of CEM is to engage stakeholders in the process of environmental planning and decision making, to resolve disputes before they become entrenched, and to formulate creative solutions. While the above examples illustrate that the collaborative approach can be applied in Virginia, it may not be utilized as widely as it might be because it is not mandated, formalized, or even widely recognized as a coherent body of practice. As a result, Virginia's environmental organizations and agencies face a dual challenge.

First, they should promote the development and understanding of CEM. Collaborative management is easier described than it is practiced. There is no road map to applying the approach. While useful tricks of the trade for participation and negotiation exist, applications need to be tailored to the situation. Only through continued experimentation and systematic study of CEM can we discover its limitations and full potential. For this to happen, those involved in environmental policy, planning, and management must self-consciously adopt CEM approaches in their work. They must also welcome evaluation studies designed to assess the processes and results of CEM experiments.

Second, environmental organizations and statewide groups and agencies can increase the use of CEM by educating local officials, the business community, and citizens about the methods and promise of CEM. We would advocate the creation of a collaboratively funded, independent institute dedicated to both evaluating CEM techniques and training interested persons in their use. Such an institute could also publicize the idea of CEM so that environmental officials and concerned citizens would know about its availability as an approach to resolving environmental problems in their communities.

While we are convinced that CEM holds great promise, we want to end with a note of caution. Clearly there is no single solution to

all environmental challenges. CEM is no exception, and we must know when to turn to it. For example, collaboration implies a joint decision-making approach to problem resolution where power is shared and stakeholders take responsibility for their actions. This implies that the approach may not work well

• in cases requiring centralized planning,
• when stakeholders vary a great deal in their power and authority,
• when conflict is deeply rooted due to past failures or ideological differences, or
• when a legal precedent is sought and litigation is a goal of some of the parties.

Even when the situation calls for collaboration, many issues need to be addressed, including

• the appropriate balance between scientific information, institutional directives, and stakeholder values and interests;
• the balance among equity, effectiveness, and efficiency in solutions;
• the choice of participation and negotiation techniques to involve stakeholders;
• the existing balance of authority and resources among stakeholders; and
• the political, legal, and administrative commitment to shared governance.

Successful, widespread use of CEM, then, relies on its continued development through practice and evaluation through research. Virginia should establish itself as a leader in these activities.

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NEW SCHOOL FOCUSES ON PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

The School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) is a recent addition to the public policy and international programs at Virginia Tech. Founded in 1995, the school coordinates instructional, research, and public service activities across five departments: urban affairs and planning, political science, the Center for Public Administration and Policy, geography, and international studies. The current director, James Bohland, is responsible for the administration of the school, which spans two colleges at the university: the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.

Although in its infancy, SPIA has established an impressive track record for innovative program development. Under the school's direction, a summer Washington Semester Program was implemented to afford undergraduate students the opportunity to combine public affairs internships with participation in interdisciplinary seminars on public policy and public administration. All program activities are offered at the university's Alexandria Center over a 11-week period. Faculty members from Virginia Tech provide personalized instruction to the program's 25 participants. Unique in its mission and design, the Washington Semester Program launches many students into careers in public and nonprofit agencies in Washington.

A revised Master of Public and International Affairs degree is under consideration by school faculty. When operational the degree will afford students at various locations in the state the opportunity to obtain advanced professional education in several critical policy areas: information technology, collaborative environmental management, and development. The areas of study are integrated around a curriculum that stresses policy and public management strategies in a political economy that is increasingly global in nature.

In research and public service, the school is focusing initially on three areas to maximize production of high quality activities and to take advantage of the special talents of faculty members within the school:

• Information technology: policy and socio economic assessment.
  Coupled with Virginia Tech's international reputation in engineering and information sciences, SPIA's research program will give the commonwealth a research expertise that is extraordinary. The assessment and policy component of information technology too frequently is missing, which leads to poor judgments in making decisions on our information technology future.
• Collaborative environmental management.
  Federal and state environmental agencies around the nation have begun rethinking how best to ensure environmental quality in conjunction with economic development. The collaborative management model is one that has gained support and for many policymakers represents the future pathway for environmental regulatory policy.
• Rural health policy.
  The school has taken advantage of its faculty and its location in order to support a research focus on rural health. Access to quality health care at affordable costs continues as a daunting policy issue nationally and within the commonwealth. By focusing faculty resources on this issue, the school can help contribute to understanding and resolving the persistent rural health problem.

By creating and supporting an administrative structure that can coordinate the many talents of Virginia Tech's faculty, the school has and will continue to provide instruction, research, and service to advance the well-being of citizens of the commonwealth and of the nation.

Editor's note: The School of Public and International Affairs provided two articles in this issue of Virginia Issues & Answers: "Collaborative environmental management: An emerging approach and experience in Virginia" and "Privatizing job placement services: More bang for the welfare buck?"

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John Randolph heads the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech and for seven years directed the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. His 10-volume Sourcebook for Local Water Resources Management details a wide range of approaches, policies, and methods for Virginia localities. The author of numerous publications and conference papers and an active researcher, he has written several policy documents for the Virginia General Assembly and testified before various General Assembly committees and commissions on water, energy, and housing policy issues.

Richard C. Rich is the chair of the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech and chair-elect of the Risk Communications Specialty Group of the International Society for Risk Analysis. He has served as co-editor of Hazardous Materials Dialogue; has conducted case studies and national surveys relating to risk communication and emergency management policies for the United States Environmental Protection Agency; and has consulted with federal, state, and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations on strategies for effective hazardous materials management, risk communication, and emergency response planning.