Towards an Environmental Governance Agenda in Regional Environmental Assessment: A Case Study of the Crown Managers Partnership

Abstract

In the last decade, the emphasis of regional environmental assessment (EA) has shifted away from simply project approval towards facilitating environmental governance by accommodating heterogeneous stakeholders and emphasising relationship building across diverse institutions. However, there are very few advanced regional EA cases that may be studied to understand how practice has evolved and the implications for regional environmental governance. This paper characterises and assesses the interactions among the members of the Crown of the Continent Managers Partnership (CMP), whereby individuals with planning, policy-making, and EA roles attempted to implement an adaptive approach to regional cumulative effects assessment. Twelve in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders provide data used in the investigation. The analysis demonstrates opportunities for an approach to regional EA that facilitates environmental governance through collective visioning, innovative leadership, learning from failure, and collaborative science and management. Lessons from the CMP are relevant internationally to jurisdictions seeking to implement regional EA via multi-disciplinary, multi-jurisdictional partnerships.