Environmental Decision Making Projects

Through the Environmental Decision-Making program, the Natural Resource Leadership Institute provides policy negotiation, facilitation and mediation services to manage conflict over environmental issues and aid collaborative decision-making. The Institute supports these processes by designing, facilitating, and mediating stakeholder processes for state and local government and private organizations.

Following is a list of the most recent projects conducted by the Natural Resources Leadership Institute. For a complete listing click here.

• Roundtable on Carbon Sequestration in Coastal Pocosins. November 2002. For the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Conservation Fund, NRLI moderated a panel of scientists, land managers and others in a discussion of the potential of peatlands in eastern NC to sequester carbon as an offset for carbon dioxide emissions.Catawba River Basin Stakeholder Advisory Committee. September 2000 - March 2001.
  
  
• Catawba River Basin Riparian Buffers. For the NC Division of Water Quality, NRLI designed and facilitated a collaborative decision-making process around the issue of riparian buffers in the Catawba River basin. We organized two stakeholder groups in the basin focused on developing recommendations on a temporary buffer rule in the basin for consideration by the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission.
  
  
• Sea Turtle Workshop. January 25, 2001 Steve Smutko moderated a NC Sea Grant/NC Division of Marine Fisheries workshop on sea turtle - fishermen interactions. The purpose of the "Sea Turtle Workshop." was to provide information about sea turtle population dynamics, implementation of the federal endangered species act, and gather feedback from fishermen and conservationists on existing and potential actions to protect sea turtles and maintain the coastal flounder fishery.
  
  
• USFWS Piping Plover Educational Forums. June - August, 2000.
  For the US Fish & Wildlife Service NRLI organized three educational forums on the piping plover, an endangered shorebird. The purpose of the forums was to provide information to citizens about the piping plover, and citizen feedback to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on concerns or questions regarding the management of this species.
  
  
• Urban Stormwater Management Stakeholder Process. March - November 2000
  NRLI organized two activities related to stakeholder involvement in state rulemaking for urban stormwater management. We organized education forums about urban stormwater management for groups of interested constituencies (e.g., the environmental community, developers, and local government officials). The purpose of the forums was to provide information about stormwater issues and programs in North Carolina; provide information about an upcoming stakeholder-based rulemaking process, and the role of stakeholders in that process ; and gather feedback from the participants about their needs, concerns, and interests regarding a comprehensive stormwater program. Second, we convened meetings of single-constituency groups (local government, developers and contractors, environmental organizations) to enable information exchange between the stakeholders at the negotiating table and the organizations they represent.
  
  
• Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area Stakeholder Committee. November 1999 - April 2000.The cretaceous aquifer system that supplies fresh water to cities, industries, and farms in North Carolina's central coastal plain is being overdrawn. To protect the aquifer from saltwater intrusion and loss of storage capacity, the NC Division of Water Resources began the process of revising administrative rules governing water allocation in the coastal plain. NRLI assisted the Division to design and carry out a collaborative decision-making process to develop a permitting rule that assures fairness and predictability to water users and protects the long-range productivity of the aquifer. We convened the Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area Stakeholder Committee, coordinated information gathering and exchange, and facilitated their deliberations which resulted in a fair, practical, and effective solution.