0547-A1
Steve Wilkins[1]
Ontario Stewardship is a program of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. It is an influence model for stewardship of natural resources in Ontario.
Ontario Stewardship represents a renewed commitment to partnership and empowerment of communities. The model utilizes the population demographics and mobilizes a sophisticated network of volunteers, willing to commit themselves to their community and to future generations. The key components of the Ontario Stewardship program are the Stewardship Coordinator provided by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Stewardship Council, which consists of a diverse, influential group of volunteer community leaders.
Ontario Stewardship creates a framework of government support for community-generated initiatives and priorities, which enhances the commitment of volunteers, their expertise, their networks, and their funding sources.
Learn about the model - how it works, why it works. A case study will illustrate the power, sophistication and potential of this community-based volunteer-led initiative. See the unexpected scope of accomplishments in the short five-year history of Ontario Stewardship and understand why on a national scale it is seen as the model of choice on the Canada Stewardship Agenda.
Ontario Stewardship is a program of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and was initiated in the summer of 1995. This innovative program is supported - not controlled by the OMNR. The success of the program is found in the foundations of volunteerism and community empowerment. The Ontario Stewardship network consists of 40 community based "Stewardship Councils" located across Southern Ontario. The OMNR currently has Stewardship Coordinators committed to the support of these community based Stewardship Councils.
The landscapes in which these volunteer Councils exist are a patchwork of both privately owned and crown lands in the Province of Ontario. Councils are formed geographically by County and community.
Although private lands make up only 15% of the province’s total area they contain:
95% of the province’s agricultural land (afforestation potential)
70% of the white-tailed deer population and waterfowl population;
80% of the province’s sport fishing opportunities (revenues of $300 million per year);
the maple syrup industry of Ontario (worth $25 million/year)
20% of the provinces industrial roundwood (75,000 jobs worth $3.6 billion/year) including some of the most valuable species in Canada
immeasurable societal and environmental benefits such as recreation, wildlife habitat, green space etc.
(OMNR 1998)
Ontario Stewardship advocates that these lands be managed through a stewardship approach. The stewardship ethic is defined as:
An ethic in which humans care for the land as one part of the natural system.
To participate in environmental stewardship is to make a personal commitment to the land and to sustain and enhance it for generations to come. (OMNR Guidelines revised 2001).
Ontario Stewardship is in place to bring together people to advance resource stewardship. It brings together landowners, individuals, associations and resource agencies with an interest in responsible land care, sustainable resource use, taking an ecological approach, and a healthy environment. The Ontario Stewardship council ‘network’ is involved in over 500 projects each year ranging from natural resource education, living waters, wildlife habitat enhancement, and numerous forest related - community generated projects. Many of these projects result in economic and community development, such as organizing or supporting events that draw people to the community, assisting new business initiatives, and enhancing landowners’ ability to generate benefits from natural resources. These projects encourage local employment, enhance community capacity, and empower local leaders to act and direct local initiatives. This in turn encourages the volunteer commitment of time, expertise, and financial resources that have made Ontario Stewardship a unique community led, government supported model.
Ontario Stewardship has two key components: the influential volunteer members of the Stewardship Councils and the OMNR Stewardship Coordinator.
The Community Stewardship Councils are active groups that share a strong commitment to the program purpose and represent landowners, land interests and resources in the area. They are respected people who provide a forum to recognize and influence community involvement and interest in stewardship. Representation is predominantly landowners such as woodland owners, loggers, farmers, cottagers, naturalists, and recreationalists. Each Council has a chairperson and the council member’s act much like a board of directors, in addition to getting directly involved in many projects. Councilors are apolitical and non-partisan. The Councils:
Provide a forum to foster stewardship, influence responsible land care by landowners and land interest, and seek funding opportunities to support their initiative.
Integrate with existing community groups - do not duplicate or replace their efforts, but compliment their work and pursue opportunities for synergy.
Encourage cooperation among agencies and associations through their focus on projects that require shared efforts.
A council is considered to be established when it has:
A group of between 8 and 15 people who are: respected members of the community, committed to the program purpose; able to represent the spectrum of landowners and land interests;
A terms of reference;
Administrative guidelines, including appropriate (auditable) means for handling money. This may involve affiliation with an agency that is prepared to provide banking services, such as a CA, county or association;
General operating guidelines;
A general strategy to give guidance over two or more years; includes a specific goal and objectives, an indication of priorities, candidate activities and potential opportunities;
A basic work plan for the current year;
A simple means to track community and agency participation and contribution to the attainment of the work plan and council’s targets;
A Stewardship Coordinator working with them;
Stewardship Coordinators are paid by MNR with the understanding that they work for the community through the Stewardship Council. Their task involves building the necessary relationships and partnerships, working collaboratively with agencies and associations, providing a window to the science and information within MNR and the extensive network that they are a part of. They may also take on an active role as the spokesperson for the Council. They will have a local network of personal contacts in the community. They will have a responsibility to be an active participant in the greater network of 40 Councils, which is Ontario Stewardship - a key to the success of this program. They will also be part of a regional/provincial network, which will:
Create a broader sense of purpose (e.g. ecosystem and corporate approach);
Lend some consistency to the program;
Maintain currency with programs and developments;
Obtain and give advice on "how to" (e.g. relationship development; skills & techniques);
Create synergy and momentum.
(OMNR Program Guidelines revised August 2001)
Ontario Stewardship Councils respect the following principles:
Progressive and cooperative work must jointly involve landowners and land interest to attain resource stewardship.
This program is not to be a government control program, but rather a program based upon influence, shared among those who accept the program’s common purpose.
The program is to encourage resource agencies to work together to provide complementary services and support to landowners.
The program will respect land ownership (i.e. the rights of landowners to make decisions on managing their lands).
Landowners and those with an interest in the land must influence the program from the community level.
The contribution of OMNR will be compatible with its long-term strategy.
Ecological sustainability is OMNR’s corporate mission, thus contributing to the economic, environmental and social well-being of Ontario, and enabling the Ministry to commit significant staff and financial resources to support the success of this program.
With these principles in mind the following concepts have been applied by Stewardship Councils to become truly relevant to the communities they represent. These include:
A multi-issue environmental approach;
A community based approach;
A collaborative approach;
A partnership and relationship building approach;
A leverage funding approach.
The focus is on natural resource sustainability and wise use - the stewardship of wildlife, fish, forests, wetlands, and related natural habitats and natural heritage values.
Projects are encouraged to:
Have broad community benefit
Have ecosystem value
Have broad landscape impact
Incorporate cost sharing partners
Fully account for the contribution of the landowner
Have community participation
Promote education and awareness of stewardship
Results are tangible and measurable
Each stewardship council identifies its own set of priorities for their geographic area of responsibility.
The Bancroft Area Stewardship Council is centred around the community of Bancroft (population 3500) in the central part of Ontario. It is representative of an active Stewardship Council and illustrates the sophistication of the volunteer component of the Council’s themselves. The community is resource based and the forest industry is the economic engine of the area. It exists in the crown land - private land patchwork discussed previously.
The Bancroft Area Stewardship Council (BASC) is a demographic representation of the community and therefore there is a strong forestry component. In the 5 active years of existence it has gained the profile and integrity as truly the ‘environmental board of directors’ for the area. The Stewardship Council provides advice for environmental education, business, environmental groups, and citizens at large.
The BASC partnered with the local high school to initiate the environmental leadership program. Students fully integrated into a semester course to learn and work with community groups on initiatives relevant to the community they live in. These students learn about:
Forestry - otherwise not in curriculum
Sustainable harvesting - actually do tree marking
Harvesting techniques and equipment - safety and chainsaw certification
The importance of the industry to the community - mill tours, work sessions, industry sponsorships
Fisheries and wildlife biology and benefits - global positioning of lake trout spawning beds, radio telemetry of reintroduced elk population, train and receive trappers licences.
These experiences for our youth have added to the community work force and enabled youth to stay in the rural community they were born in and built on the strengths of the community. All this facilitated by the BASC.
The BASC looked at a forest industry awareness gap in the near urban population as well as it’s own citizen’s. The Council ran a successful show called Saw Tech which not only focussed on harvesting equipment but also on private land stewardship. The community swelled from 3,500 to 12,000 for the event - increased awareness of the community and the forest industry, obvious positive economic impacts, and increased a base of community volunteers and pride. All facilitated and influenced by the Stewardship Council.
The BASC recognized the need for a private land loggers association. Crown land loggers and consultants are covered through local government and partnership offices as well as legislated requirements for any work on the ground. This does not exist on the private lands. The stewardship ethic needed to be spread to landowners and loggers alike. Hence the Council facilitated the formation of the Bancroft Area Forest Industries Association. This group has provided workshops, educated their members and the community about the industry and raised the possibility of tree cutting bylaws for protection of the resource and sustainability of the local industry. All made possible by the diverse interests around the Stewardship Council table.
The BASC looked at the gap, which existed in not having environmental representation in the community and the Council. Initial reluctance by the forestry, fish and game members turned to facilitation and support for a chapter of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. This relationship provided monetary support for:
Junior Naturalist camps in the summer
In-kind and monetary support for a unique Hawk Watch platform built as a successful eco-tourism venue for the town of Bancroft.
Naturalist members now assist the forest industry in identifying and mapping stick nests in future harvesting blocks. Through the Stewardship Council adversaries became partners with a totally new understanding of each other’s needs.
The BASC looked at ‘afforestation’ and ‘reforestation’ possibilities in the area. Expense of trees was prohibitive for landowners. Through the members of the Council they initiated the ‘Logger Landowner Relationship’ whereby local loggers donated forest products to enable the BASC to fund trees for landowners that followed a deliberate, viable planting plan agreement. The agreement also allowed the local field naturalist access to the property to erect and monitor blue bird boxes. A positive sustainable relationship has been built between the logging community and forest landowners that has now encouraged increased sustainable harvesting and tree planting. This program has enabled over a quarter of a million trees to be planted in the area.
This case study illustrates the impact of one council on one community. These changes are a testament to the empowerment of the program and strategic heights volunteers can go when supported in their own community. There are 40 councils and many, many communities whose capacity has been enhanced in stewardship activities through the Ontario Stewardship program.
Accomplishments
The following accomplishments of the overall Provincial program reflect activities for the year 2000-2001:
11,000 volunteers
170,000 volunteer hours
1,900 partners
$21 million total contribution and effort for natural resources
What these figures do not reflect is the networking efforts and unique partnerships that have been created through this influence model. The emphasis on the importance of relationships has proven to be important. The people involved are doing an excellent job of building strong relationship at the community level - - among landowners, with associations, agencies and corporate and industrial sectors.
The Community Stewardship Councils, are
landowner and land interest based, with a good balance
providing a forum for building stewardship
apolitical and non-partisan
The Stewardship Coordinators, are
doing a valued job of being facilitators and brokers,
bringing a diversity of people together, focusing on their common interests
work for the council and the community.
Ontario Stewardship is empowering, efficient, and accountable. Many important features of the program are contributing to our success...
synergy among a diversity of groups - represented on the Councils and drawn together for projects.
diversity of interests, skills and money
the time spent bringing in the mix of people and organizations makes scarce $ go farther
building the right team of collaborators frequently means that each partner primarily provides what they do best - resulting in a high quality project that is efficiently delivered.
projects address resource management problems as they are recognized and defined locally - because the needs are identified locally and the projects are designed locally.
an ecosystem approach is built in by the involvement of a diversity of local interests and the participation of people with interests beyond the local community. This diversity of interests and abundance of people taking action under the umbrella of a common stewardship goal, is an excellent case example of "thinking globally, acting locally".
while there is a diversity of interests involved, the one characteristic that has been "managed" is the strength of representation by the landowners.
Ontario Stewardship is a model developed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to empower people to take part, in a real sense, in their own communities. The Ontario Stewardship network will establish the connectivity and encourage the ecosystem approach. The program set out to improve stewardship of our natural resources, to create a collaborative resource management model, and to implement a model of influence. Much more than that has happened. The program has created a new relationship with communities, found better efficiencies, and unexpected alliances, and most importantly illustrated the unbelievable measure and results of true partnerships.
If you would like to learn more about Ontario Stewardship, see the homepage at: http://www.ontariostewardship.org.
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[1] Provincial Stewardship
Coordinator, Ontario Stewardship, Ministry of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 7000,
300 Water Street, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 8M5, Canada. Tel:
1-705-755-3278; Email: [email protected]; Website: www.ontariostewardship.org |