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The Rivermont Institute, a project of Virginia Tech, is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people develop sustainable communities and a desirable future for life on Earth. The Institute collaborates with a broad coalition of partners to promote interdisciplinary and multi-institutional projects in environmental conservation, ecological restoration, and sustainable development. Currently, much of the Institute's work focuses on helping local stakeholders in underserved communities to design and implement tools and strategies for sustainable development that is both locally and globally appropriate. The Institute distributes these tools and strategies through publications and programs.
The Art and Science of Public Ecology
The Institute has adopted public ecology as an approach to sustainable development that is appropriate for today's world. Public ecology is collaborative and participatory, giving priority to local community values and quality of life issues while taking into consideration the implications for global society. Public ecology has recently emerged as a powerful force at the confluence of three major currents shaping environmental and development policy: 1) the need for local communities to coalesce and use local knowledge and local action to address local concerns, 2) the need for dialogue and collaboration across the many disciplinary, institutional and other cultural boundaries that divide scientists, policy-makers, and citizens who are concerned about sustainability, and 3) the need for a vision of nature and human society that encourages people to create healthy human ecosystems and sustainable communities at local, regional, and global scales.
Sustainable Communities Initiative
The Institute is now collaborating with communities in the Piedmont and Appalachian regions of the mid-Atlantic United States to help achieve sustainable development goals. When working with these local communities, the Institute has the following objectives:
· Civic Engagement with Local Stakeholders
· Assessing Community Readiness (including resources, needs, and opportunities)
· Designing Tools and Strategies (including plans, policies, products, and practices)
· Implementing Assistance and Education Programs
· Monitoring and Evaluation of Initiatives
Each local community is unique with diverse needs and opportunities. This requires that the Institute partner with citizen stakeholders during all stages of work from identifying problems to implementing solutions. The Institute can help communities organize to define their vision and plans for conservation and development but only the communities know how they should change. Citizen stakeholders are the ones who must be informed and empowered to make the important and difficult decisions necessary to ensure a sustainable and desirable future.
Building Capacity for Developing Sustainable Communities in Economically Depressed and Underserved Regions
A Project of The Rivermont Institute ~ DRAFT, 9/21/03
In the Piedmont and Appalachian regions of Virginia and North Carolina, people are in dire need of local economic development opportunities that are socially desirable and environmentally sustainable. Many local communities in the region are economically depressed and experiencing rising unemployment and poverty rates. These conditions are due in part to the loss of employment opportunities as tobacco, textile, and wood products industries have relocated to other regions of the world where there are lower wage rates, fewer taxes, and less stringent environmental regulations. Despite the current conditions, specific local communities throughout the area show tremendous potential for sustainable economic recovery through advances in land use and renewable resource technologies.
Recently, numerous private and public partners have begun to invest in efforts to promote economic development and renewable resource management opportunities in the region by developing new high-value horticulture and forestry crops, new materials and processing systems, and new information infrastructure and technologies. These efforts are underway and funded, in part, by Virginia's share of the "tobacco settlement." In order to make effective use of these resources in a way that benefits local communities and the region as a whole, The Rivermont Institute proposes to engage local stakeholders in a participatory assessment and strategic planning process. This effort, including a public education campaign, will serve to build capacity for change.
The Rivermont Institute's "sustainable development assistance program" will lead a broad coalition of partners through a four step process of civic engagement, resource assessment, strategic planning, and public education. The primary activities will include a survey of existing resources and a series of public meetings including interviews, focus groups, and workshops culminating in a "summit" symposium. The assessment will be followed by a public education campaign targeted at local stakeholders. We will focus our energies on select communities in Virginia and North Carolina.
This project should produce the following outcome objectives:
| Contact: David P. Robertson, Ph.D. 901 Jefferson St., #6I Lynchburg, Virginia 24504 434-847-1178 porterdr@vt.edu |
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