The Answer to ‘ What Next? ’ : Public Policy – When

The environmental concerns we have discussed: water quality, air quality, flooding, and climate change to name a few are all the result of numerous agents making

© IWA Publishing 2021. A Guide to Understanding the Fundamental Principles of Environmental Management. It Ain’t Magic: Everything Goes Somewhere

Authors: Andy Manale and Skip Hyberg doi: 10.2166/9781789060997_0149

independent decisions and actions that, in aggregate, degrade a shared resource.

Each are examples of the Tragedy of the Commons. Because the services these resources provide are shared, these resources are considered public resources, and public policy is needed to maintain them.

What is public policy? It is the rules we use to allocate and manage public resources. It is needed because coordinated effort, rather than random acts, is required for effective and efficient management of shared resources. Addressing resource degradation in a piecemeal fashion is unlikely to resolve the diminishment of the resource. Consider air, clearly a public resource. You cannot exclude others from using air, but your actions can diminish the benefit for others. Think of a smokestack, spewing noxious gases, reducing the air quality downwind. Similarly, water is a public resource that may be diverted temporarily for personal use, but eventually it moves along within its cycle: evaporating, transpiring, flowing as a river, stream, or infiltrating underground. We share this water with our fellow humans and with the animal and plant worlds. Actions that increase the amount going into the atmosphere diminish the amount available for drinking water and to aquatic ecosystems. Measures that degrade water quality harm those living downstream. Land and soil also provide services that are public resources. They may be privately owned, but their connection to air, water, and biological communities means how they are used affects others.

Public policy has developed over the years in recognition that when resource management decisions affect many people, the interests of those affected need to be taken into account, and only a concerted effort can protect the resource.

Managing shared resources to maintain the flow of public services requires that priorities and objectives be identified, strategies to obtain public objectives formulated, and the mechanisms to motivate participants to protect these resources designed. Public policy is the arena where these actions take place.

Because the problems associated with shared resources are complex and different agents are affected differently, how we make decisions and who makes them are critical components of resource management. Addressing these concerns is not easy. Invariably, there will be costs and these costs, as well as the benefits, will not be evenly distributed. Identifying strategies that resolve these problems requires cooperative action on the part of the public and private entities affected.

At its heart, is the acknowledgment of the shared resource and the need for a shared response.

It is not necessary to describe here all the forms public policy can take. That is for another text. What is important is recognizing the need for coordinated action based on a science-based strategy to address environmental management concerns. This strategy should incorporate as much information as is feasible.

This includes the basic principles and tools we have discussed throughout the text, highlighting the role of the environmental manager in forming public natural resource policy – providing unbiased science-based information to the decision-making body.

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8.1.1 Policy affects behavior

Motivating people to adopt the public policy takes three broad approaches – information, incentives, and regulation. Providing information is the least intrusive because it can help lead to better decisions by identifying the costs and benefits of an action. Individuals and organizations can then choose a course of action that maximizes their welfare. An effective tool for encouraging conservation adoption in the United States is the provision of technical assistance to farmers and ranchers interested in addressing resource concerns. The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or its public and private partners, provides technical assistance in developing a plan that addresses the landowner’s resource concern(s), identifies the practice(s) needed, and assures the practice(s) is designed properly. Technical assistance reduces uncertainty for farmers while providing quality control on the planning and design of conservation practices.

Labeling is another means to provide information. It can be used to provide warnings, guidance for proper use, and details of package contents. Perhaps, the most familiar example is the use of warnings to discourage smoking. Labels, such as the nutrition labels on food packages, are also used to provide information on product content and are a tool we all use to obtain information. Packages, cans, and boxes all have the product weight listed on the label, and if they are food product details on the calorie and nutritional content. The information on many labels is a result of policies requiring that specific criteria for determining and displaying information are met.

Labeling plays a role in the environmental issues we have been discussing.

Pesticides are required to have labels providing detailed information on product content, how and when a pesticide can and cannot be used, application rates, and medical warnings and guidance. Chemical fertilizers are required to identify the nutrient content and chemical composition of the nutrients on each package. Similarly, most seed packages list the percent germination of live seed from test plots and the percent inert material and weed seed. Both fertilizer and seed companies are required to meet testing standards for the labeling information.

Providing information can help reach public objectives by identifying the consequences of an action. Strategies that reinforce the information provided by offering a realistic alternative can be more effective than relying solely on a communication strategy. Examples include providing dog waste bags and cans next to ‘clean up after your dog’ signs, or warning labels and application instructions on pesticide containers.

Incentives encourage the adoption of a public policy by reducing the cost of adopting an action consistent with the policy. In conservation, there are numerous state and federal programs that subsidize the adoption of specified practices.

These subsidies reduce or cover the cost of installing practices that further the

goals of the policy. Disincentives can be used to discourage actions that run counter to policy. These can include fines and fees.

Regulation can also be used to influence behavior. It can range from complete prohibition, to zoning, permitting, and licensing. Frequently, regulation is combined with incentives and information mechanisms to reduce the burden from the regulation, while assuring the policy has its intended outcome.

Regulatory oversight often requires certain information to be provided. An example of a combined regulatory–incentive approach would be to encourage the adoption of a practice, say dams, by providing technical assistance, yet requiring permits to assure that incorrectly designed and installed dams do not cause downstream damages. Though the technical assistance reduces the costs of design, it still requires that the landowner go through the time and trouble to obtain a permit.

An emerging approach is the use of private markets to provide incentives for individuals and organizations to adopt practices that address environmental and natural resource concerns (US EPA, 2020c). Manale, (2010) and (Manale et al, (2011) show how markets can address sticky environmental problems.

Governments serve the essential role of establishing the baseline conditions and necessary regulatory environment for the market to thrive. Examples of this are defining the commodity, setting minimum environmental standards, delineation of property rights regarding who owns the environmental commodity, and enforcement of contract provisions that serve not just those directly involved in the trades but also the public interest and the environment. Government can act as a neutral party ensuring compliance with contract terms. Polluters can reduce the cost of meeting environmental standards by paying more efficient organizations to make reductions in adverse emissions and for creating environmental offsets, such as through the establishment or restoration of wetlands.

8.2 ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT–PLANNING UNDER