New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2014 | Page 18

New Water Policy and Practice

expressed concerns:

2007).

“…. caution is also merited, insofar as
appeals to the commons run the risk
of romanticizing community control.
Much activism in favour of collective,
community-based forms of water supply management tends to romanticize
communities as coherent, relatively
equitable social structures, despite the
fact that inequitable power relations
and resource allocation exist within
communities . Although research has
demonstrated how cooperative management institutions for water common pool resources can function effectively to avoid depletion other research
points to the limitations of some of
these collective action approaches in
water.” (Bakker 2007)

The U.S. West Coast can be regarded
as a sentinel site for conflicts between environmental and development values. In that
context, the comments by fisheries professor
and EPA scientist Robert Lackey are relevant. He argues that
“…. unless we are more vigilant guarding against the misuse of science in natural resource policy and management
… we risk marginalizing the helpful
role that science and scientists can play
in resolving important, but divisive
natural resource issues.” (Lackey 2009)

He illustrates this by the persistent
misuse of terms such as “environmental integrity” which serve to colour debates that
are really about societal values and prefer
From Mcdonald and Ruiters comes ences. He notes that, in discussions about bithe reflection that
ological diversity, alien species are routinely
excluded; the apparently preferred goals of
In thinking about alternatives, it be- environmental restoration often conceal the
came clear that a systematic study real choice which is between two forms of
of concrete practices needed to be altered environment. As he explains:
grounded in principles—objective realities of uneven development and vary“In a democracy, having widely availing political circumstances in diverse
able, accurate, understandable, and unparts of the world—not just a random
biased scientific information is central
collection of case studies. Visions and
to the successful resolution of the typiprinciples require more than a mere
cally contentious, divisive and litigious
summary of what activists and progresnatural resource policy issue. To allow
sive policy makers have to say. They rescience to be marginalized through
quire a historical and multiscalar view
misuse is a major loss to society and its
of links between public services and
decision making institu [ۜ˸