Supporting sustainability through community and collaborative processes at the landscape scale: an introduction.

Many of the partners of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) have embraced the concept of sustainability and are actively working to ground the concept through their activities. The EMAN is made up of linked organizations and individuals involved in ecological monitoring in Canada to better detect, describe, and report on ecosystem changes. The network is a cooperative partnership of federal, provincial and municipal governments, academic institutions, aboriginal communities and organizations, industry, environmental non-government organizations, volunteer community groups, elementary and secondary schools and other groups and individuals involved in ecological monitoring. Environment Canada's EMAN-Coordinating Office is mandated to work collaboratively with the EMAN partners in improving the effectiveness of ecosystem monitoring and assessment to encourage informed decision-making and to create environmental awareness among Canadians.

Collaboration and landscape scale monitoring and assessment have emerged as critical aspects associated with the work of the Network. The network would cease to function without collaboration not only among natural scientists but also among social scientists, non-government organizations, the private sector and communities. It has become clear through network activities that community-based activities and collaboration at the landscape scale are essential elements of sustainability. In recognition of these critical aspects of sustainability and the work of the network, the theme selected for the 11th EMAN National Science meeting held in Penticton from November 20-26, 2005 was "Sustainability at the Landscape Scale: Supporting the Process through Multi-party Stakeholder Participation."

This special issue of Environments is a collection of papers selected from presentations made at the 2005 National Science Meeting. The meeting was organized and sponsored by the EMAN Coordinating Office and Forrex Science Outreach Organization. A stated purpose of the meeting was to have partners use the meeting as "a forum to consult, to connect and develop their programs." The event provided a venue for a series of meetings to be held with a variety of partners from all levels of government, non-governmental organizations, academics and the private sector. The Meeting also included learning workshops on monitoring framework development, monitoring study design, communications and ecosystem monitoring protocols.

Throughout the meeting there were plenary and concurrent sessions on the landscape sustainability theme. The collection of papers in this special issue highlight the leading edge nature of the work being carried out by EMAN scientists (defined broadly to also include social scientists and citizen scientists) in efforts to move toward sustainability.

The keynote presentation at the conference, by Don Gayton of FORREX, titled Landscape and the condition of being, is the lead paper for this issue. His paper explores the term landscape, the notion of sense of place and its "difficult marriage between the hard science of ecology and the soft, mushy concepts of psychology and spirituality." Gayton concludes that it is time to start talking about the "deficiencies in our current relationship to nature." His reflections were well received at the conference and offer reminders of the motivations that underly the efforts of those involved in EMAN and similar work.

Papers by Milne et al., Conrad, and Kotak deal with community-based monitoring, a subject that continues to receive much attention through the activities of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network. Milne et al. explore the challenges of multi-party monitoring in Ontario focusing on science, community and governance. Conrad explores the state of community-based monitoring in Nova Scotia and extends the EMAN Coordinating Office's community-based monitoring framework (EMAN-CO 2006) for application in Nova Scotia. Kotak, writing a shorter commentary at the end of the volume, comments on the experience of engaging the Black River First Nations in Manitoba in environmental monitoring.

Two papers dealing with people and their role in science and sustainability are included in the special issue. Jones et al. document the role of the Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network (OBBN) in the development of social capital, environmental action and problem solving ability. White's paper presents results in the South Okanagan-Similkameen community-based social marketing project and its impact on local conservation.

Normand reflects on his involvement in sustainability-driven conservation, including a study of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. He discusses themes that were central to the Meeting and this volume: sustainability, connection and collaboration.

The volume closes with two commentaries. The first, by Kotak is mentioned above. The second, by McAfee et al., reports on one of the most interesting sessions at the National Science Meeting hosted by Natural Resources Canada-Canadian Forest Service on invasive alien species.

The papers in this theme issue of Environments are written with a variety of styles and from a variety of backgrounds and experience. As such, this hints at the diversity of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network and the important socio-ecological science being carried out by its members. The issue provides a window on the inter-disciplinary work of the Network and its focus on community, sustainability and collaboration, much of it at the landscape scale.

For more information on the network, the 2005 National Science Meeting and the 2006 Meeting held in Winnipeg in November, 2006, please visit: www.eman-rese.ca.

References

Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network-Coordinating Office (EMAN-CO). 2006. http://www.eman-rese.ca/english/results.html [Accessed November 8, 2006].

Ashok Lumb, Ph.D, is Network Science Advisor with Environment Canada's Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network Coordinating Office. He is involved in various aspects of water quality monitoring, incorporating quality assurance/quality control in EMAN's Monitoring Protocols. He has produced three special issues of Environmental Monitoring & Assessment on various topics related to monitoring ecological change in Canada. He can be reached at ashok.lumb@ec.gc.ca

Graham Whitelaw is an adjunct lecturer and postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo. His research focuses on the role of civil society in planning and management processes. He can be reached at graham.whitelaw@gmail.com