Environmental protection at local level takes a wide variety of forms. Some municipalities have set their sight on becoming “environmental cities”, others wish to develop into “sustainable local communities”, and yet others have chosen to direct their main effort at biological diversity. Local-level involvement in environmental protection was already well established when Agenda 21 was adopted in Rio de Janeiro.
Environmental commitment and responsibility at local level
“Environmental Protection at Local Level” is the name given to a comprehensive reform initiated by the Ministry of Environment and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities to promote and integrate the principles of environmental protection and sustainable development into municipal planning and administration. This work has passed through various stages. It started on a trial basis in 1988-1991 in 91 municipalities and, following the success of this experiment, it was converted into a reform encompassing all the municipalities in Norway from 1992 onwards. From 1997, EPLL is being integrated into the municipal system. The reform translates the words of the motto: “Think Globally - Act Locally” into action.
Autonomous municipal government was first established in Norway in 1837 and independent county municipalities came into existence in 1975. The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, formed in 1972, protects the interests of its members and employers in Norway´s 435 municipalities and 18 county municipalities. It also acts as spokesman for the local authorities vis-à-vis the central authorities and it represents the local authorities internationally. The Association submitted recommendations in 1993 to the municipal sector on priorities for environmental protection at local level.
In local communities, the local authorities are responsible for the primary health services, social services, the building and running of primary and lower secondary schools, nursery schools, homes for the elderly and other institutions for the elderly and disabled. Libraries, local cultural work and church activities are also a municipal responsibility, as are municipal roads and parks, water supplies, waste disposal, sewerage, fire services, other technical services, land use and housing planning, and the collection of taxes.
One of the results of the EPLL reform is that practically every Norwegian municipality has now appointed an environmental officer. These officers have their own forum, “Forum for Local Environmental Protection”, where they discuss the work they do at local level. This network plays an important role in the exchange and transfer of knowledge and experience gained from the different measures implemented in Norwegian municipalities.
The EPLL reform has laid the foundation for Local Agenda 21. The content of Local Agenda 21 in Norway is based on the IULA´s Oslo declaration of 1991, from which the motto “Think Globally - Act Locally“ originates. IULA is an acronym for the International Union of Local Authorities. Along with the recommendations of the Rio Conference in 1992, the Oslo declaration forms the basis for the conversion of the EPLL reform into Local Agenda 21 as a part of the development of the municipal sector in a sustainable direction.
Local Agenda 21 is founded on Chapter 28 in Agenda 21, one of the agreements reached at the Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Agenda 21 urges local authorities all over the world to initiate a dialogue with and cooperate with the local inhabitants, organisations and private enterprises in adopting a Local Agenda 21. The work shall mainly take place locally, but shall have a global perspective and commitment on a broad front. The principal participants in this work - along with organisations, the local business sector and inhabitants - are the local and regional authorities (i.e. the municipalities and county municipalities). For some years, Norwegian local authorities have been striving to comply with the wish of the Rio Conference to develop Local Agenda 21 in the municipalities. Since the middle eighties, moreover, a number of programmes have been launched to promote local and popular participation in environmental work and to include environmental protection in local planning.
The implementation of Local Agenda 21 will largely be based on existing laws and development programmes, especially the EPLL reform. Local Agenda 21 has a broader approach than the EPLL, but the principles and objectives of the EPLL reform still coincide with the fundamental features of Local Agenda 21 and have been instrumental in giving Norway a positive basis for further environmental work. Local Agenda 21 can therefore be seen as a natural development of the environmental efforts already initiated by the local authorities to achieve sustainable development.
Strategy for sustainable development
In 1993, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities advised the municipalities and county municipalities to convert their environmental and resource management plans into plans of action for the 21st century. The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities has initiated a number of development programmes based on the EPLL reform, including “Direction Analyses” and “Democracy, Participation and Directing”. The first is a programme to develop tools for environmental impact assessment. The method is intended to be a tool to follow up environmental commitment at local level to ensure that developments in the municipalities are moving in a long-term, sustainable direction. The analysis part has a time dimension that looks beyond the next generation and can be an important part of the local authorities´ preventive strategy.
The other project has its basis in the local democratic bodies and their contact with the people, especially in the matter of sustainable development.
In order to introduce and evaluate Local Agenda 21 in the municipalities, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities and the Ministry of Environment are now drawing up an overall strategy. This will, for example, make it easier to gain access to research results and information from municipal pilot projects.
International cooperation
The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities has played a part in the establishment of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, ICLEI. The Association coordinates its environmental work and work for sustainable development with that of the ICLEI and others. One important task is to encourage local projects and at the same time build a network that can be used for the exchange of information and practical experience. The Association has also taken the initiative in establishing a Nordic network under ICLEI. Several Norwegian local authorities are also members of ICLEI. Representatives of local and regional authorities in a number of European countries met in Lisbon in the autumn of 1996 for the second conference on sustainable cities and towns. Here, the “Lisbon Plan of Action - from Charter to Action” was drawn up. This is a plan of action for Local Agenda 21 and sustainable development, and its purpose is also to exchange experience and explore the possibilities of cooperation on projects focusing on how local authorities can help to implement Agenda 21.
Legal basis
The Planning and Building Act of 1985 is the most important
piece of legislation for planning and implementing an environmental policy. Some important requirements in this Act, which relate to Agenda 21, are
• that the planning authorities at local and regional level must be active
• that popular participation must be included in the preparation and follow-up of Local Agenda 21
• that guidelines for environmental policy must be communicated by the environmental protection authorities
• that environmental impact assessments must be an important tool in this work
Who does the planning?
The Act stipulates that practical planning shall take place at municipal level. The local authorities prepare land-use plans, based among other things on long-range, action-oriented objectives and on maps that show what the land is to be used for. When the general public has had theopportunity to comment on the plans, the final decision is normally taken by the popularly elected municipal bodies. Some land use, for example road-building, planning along rivers and public transport, often affects several municipalities. This requires coordination of the work at a higher level by the county municipality. According to the Planning and Building Act, the main tasks of the county municipality are to submit holistic, overall plans ensuring, among other things, the efficient use of resources and promoting the desired development of the region.
Popular participation and information
The Planning and Building Act lays down a number of requirements regarding popular access to and participation in planning processes in the municipalities and county municipalities. The Act requires the authorities to ensure that the affected parties are given the opportunity to take an active part in the planning process. The authorities are also under obligation to publish the plans, so that all the affected parties and the general public have a chance to express their opinions before a decision is made.
Children and youth
Two centrally issued political guidelines are of particular interest to Local Agenda 21. A circular entitled Children and Planning aims, in keeping with Chapters 25 and 28 in Agenda 21, to turn the spotlight on the interest of children and youth in planning processes and to give the local authorities a better basis on which to integrate and fulfil childrenís and young people´s wishes into municipal planning. These guidelines are intended to guarantee quality in children´s and young peopleís physical environment and to serve a basis for assessing matters where the interests of children and youth come in conflict with other social interests.
Coordinated planning for land use and transport
The national guidelines for coordinated land-use and transport planning aim to improve the coordination of the work done both in the municipalities and between the municipalities in relation to land-use and transport plans. Land-use and transport systems must be coordinated at the development stage if they are to promote efficient use of resources, good road safety, environmentally friendly solutions, safe local environments and residential areas, and an efficient flow of traffic. Importance must be attached to achieving good regional solutions across municipal boundaries.
Integration of environmental considerations
Environmental impact assessments will ensure that all the significant effects of specific projects on the environment, natural resources and society are surveyed and evaluated at an early stage in the planning process. It is the responsibility of the developer to carry out an environmental impact assessment. One of the reasons for this is the wish for a broad, open discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of alternative locations before a final decision is made.
The work at local level
In recent years, the Ministry of Environment and the local authorities have given priority to work on development programmes that focus on local-level environmental protection. The most important programmes and projects that involve the local population, a large number of public bodies and non-government organisations are described on the following pages. The experience gained from these programmes and projects forms the basis for Local Agenda 21 in Norwegian municipalities. The aim is to carry out the work in close cooperation between the municipalities and organisations such as the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry, the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities and NGOs.
Local Agenda 21 in Norway is based on and related to environmental protection at local level (the EPLL reform). The objective of the reform was to establish andelevate environmental protection to an area for which politicians in the municipalities would take the responsibility and to develop a holistic, cross-sectoral and long-term responsibility for the environment at local level. On an overall basis, the environmental challenges in the municipalities are linked with nature management, preservation of cultural monuments, development of good neighbourhoods, municipal waste disposal and water supply, pollution from transport, energy policy and preparedness for oil and chemical pollution.
The EPLL has a good record and appears to have strengthened the local authorities´ ability to define and meet local environmental challenges. The reform has also encouraged the local authorities to undertake new tasks. This has helped them to intercept government signals more quickly and translate them into municipal action. One of the many municipalities that has done good work within the framework of the EPLL reform is Stavanger.
Stavanger: Norway´s most densely populated urban area
The standard of living is high in Stavanger. Sustainable development requires major changes in attitudes and behaviour on the part of most people. For this reason, the city has initiated a wide-ranging programme relating to Local Agenda 21. The aim of the project is to mobilise individuals, families, the business sector and the public sector to contribute towards a more sustainable development. Ideas and suggestions for what individual people can do in their daily life play a central part here. In this way, Local Agenda 21 is helping to start a new era in the city of Stavanger´s environmental efforts.
Stavanger has, to some extent in cooperation with non-governmental organisations, carried out a large number of traditional and less traditional environmental projects. The many projects include:
• Environment for the Very Small, a project aiming to change the consumption pattern of families with small children and strengthen the social relations between such families
• Green School, a project which turns the spotlight on 5th grade children, in order to clarify how information affects attitudes to environment
• Green Parish, a project to heighten the awareness of the parish through work that connects traditional tasks with environmental protection projects
• Green Urban District, a project in the urban district of Storhaug which focuses on what it is like living together within an area. The project will look at the advantages and the possibilities that can be made use of
• Green Housing Cooperative, a project in which the residents at Eikeberg work on waste, source separation, transport, multi-cultural relations and energy saving
• Green Municipal Services, a project in which the Stavanger local authorities focus on in-house training, waste, purchasing, cycling and energy consumption
• Green Island, a project which looks at the special qualities and pre-requisites of an island community and where importance is attached to themes such as waste, energy consumption, outdoor recreation and nature trails
• Green Industrial Estate, a project investigating whether enterprises within a particular area can cooperate on environmental measures, such as joint waste collection points and transport
• Green City Centre, a project that looks at the coordination required to improve the environment in the centre of Stavanger. This will include transport, waste and aesthetics
• Green Farm, a project showing organic farming where there is room for research, demonstrations and the sale of goods
What is a good model for the sustainable development of a city? This is what the environmental authorities would like to know. In collaboration with other ministries and five cities, the Ministry of Environment initiated an Environmental City Project´ in 1993. In the course of seven years, models were to be developed for environmentally friendly cities. Priority has been given to six aims
• to coordinate land-use and transport planning
• to refurbish the city centre as a meeting place and centre for trade, business and culture
• to help local environments to flourish again by providing good residential areas and a local service that makes everyday life easier and gives children and elderly people a safe and positive environment
• to preserve and protect natural areas, water environments and green spaces for recreation and biological diversity
• to dispose of waste in such a way that as much as possible is from households, service institutions and business and industry and recycled
• to develop a good physical environment as regards buildings and communal areas and preservation of various kinds of cultural monuments and make them more accessible to the general public
Fredrikstad is one of the five cities taking part in the Environmental City Programme
Fredrikstad: To save resources and improve living conditions
The two most important challenges facing Fredrikstad as an environmental city are to develop an urban structure that requires less space, energy and other resources and to improve the environmental, health and living conditions for the city´s inhabitants. Its aim is to define new principles for sustainable development, while taking visible action. Fredrikstad is tackling these challenges and is in the process of achieving its goals. An environmental centre, called Noah´s Park and recently opened in the centre of Fredrikstad, will be an arena for commitment, cooperation and the exchange of information between the local authorities, NGOs and enthusiastic private individuals. One of the organisations in the Centre is the Youth Parliament which works closely with the local authorities (see separate project). Also located in the centre of Fredrikstad is a training centre where local environmental expertise will be built up, teachers will be trained, students´ work will be presented in the form of an “environmental diary” and art competitions on environmental themes will be arranged. Two centres in the town provide voluntary assistance, one in close contact with the Environmental City Programme. These centres have been set up on the initiative of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and they arrange voluntary help, such as hospital visits, help with day-to-day shopping and gardening. Fredrikstad´s environmental programme also includes contact with two twin towns in Guatemala: San Martin and Patzun. The schools benefit from this cooperation in environmental studies and Noah´s Park, the Youth Parliament and the training centre all contribute to exchange and cooperation. This is a good example of how the global perspective of Local Agenda 21 can be developed in a municipality. Fredrikstad is not developing into an environmental city in isolation from the surrounding municipalities. It is collaborating with neighbouring city Sarpsborg in drawing up land-use and transport plans in order to facilitate public transport and the use of bicycles.
Youth Parliament
The primary goal of the Youth Parliament is to spread information about Agenda 21 and to make it easier for young people to be heard and to take an active part in the work of formulating local Agenda 21s. Its target group is Norwegian children and youth and it is linked up to the global network of youth parliaments, Global Youth Action for the Environment.
The Youth Parliament headquarters are located in Fredrikstad, but the young people in Norway´s environmental cities work closely together. The Youth Parliament involves school pupils, for example, in global activities on activity days. In addition to the global themes, which may be “fair trade”, “biodiversity” or “transport”, some special Norwegian activities are selected.
Through the media of tomorrow - the electronic information channels - young people swap notes and promote their work. This exchange is also global. Work is being done to facilitate a friendly link-up on a global level between children and youth
relating to Local Agenda 21 on an electronic network with the working title of “Twinning and Linking”.
Can local authorities think differently, open up more to the general public and cooperate more fully across the services in matters relating to the immediate environment? This is the goal of a development programme called “Together for Better Communities”, abbreviated to the SAM programme. This programme has three main elements:
• Mobilisation and popular participation at local level
• Local organisations run by and for the people
• Development of a communication culture allowing the municipal administrations and the politicians to engage in an active dialogue with the public
The SAM programme was initiated by the Ministry of Environment in 1993 and is a joint venture between the Ministry, eleven municipalities and two county municipalities. The district of Sund in Hordaland is one of the SAM municipalities.
Sund: Commitment and dialogue
The municipality of Sund hard to involve its inhabitants in the environmental planning process. This resulted in an extensive study in which more than 400 people or almost ten per cent of the population took part. The starting point was a work book compiled by the local authorities containing questions and problems relating to nine common environmental themes, such as residential areas, outdoor recreation and communications.
The work books were completed by about fifty working groups who were also supplied with detailed maps and a simple environmental status report. The groups completed their workbooks in the course of twelve sessions and these workbooks formed their contributions to environmental planning at local level. The resulting “people´s environmental plan” was quickly integrated into the municipal plan for Sund. Environmental protection thus became an obligatory part of Sund´s municipal plan, thanks to broad popular participation and an active dialogue between the municipal administration, politicians and inhabitants.
A cross-disciplinary dialogue is needed between the municipal and government institutions that are concerned with environmental and health issues. This can be a stimulating starting-point for participation in the work of protecting the ecosystems, preserving cultural and biodiversity and building up better health protection and protection against illness and damage to people and the environment. This is the reason why Sandnes applied to join the WHO Health City Project in 1992. As a condition of membership, Sandnes took the initiative in 1994, in partnership with the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, in establishing a network of health and environmental municipalities.
The Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs provide financial and professional aid to the network of health and environmental municipalities. Fifteen municipalities plus the county of Østfold are part of this network. The project will run for six years and is based on the World Health Organisation (WHO)´s project: “Health for Everyone in the Year 2000”.
Sandnes: Health and environment
Sandnes´ vision is to be an active, vigorous municipality where growth and development are based on well-being, safety, health and environmental awareness. The motive force is a close interaction between private individuals, organisations, volunteers, the business sector and the municipality. In 1992, the municipality of Sandnes applied to join and was accepted for the WHO Health City project. One of things Sandnes undertook to do was to establish a national network of health and environmental municipalities.
Seven projects have been started in Sandnes as part of the health and environment programme. Some are being run by the local authorities, while others have many participants. The motto of one of the projects involving a large number of people is "In Sandnes it is healthy to stay home”. The goals of this project are to achieve a good indoor climate in housing, housing with good outdoor areas and housing that saves energy. These goals will be achieved by transferring knowledge and building up expertise and through individual projects to gain experience. Another joint project with the motto “In Sandnes we pedal for our lives” aims to encourage people to use bicycles in their free time and to cycle to work. A number of specific steps have been taken to this end, one being a special “city bicycle” launched by the authorities.
How does a municipality found its administration and planning on ecologically sound principles, based on the use of local resources, participation and control? It does so through the programme for eco-municipalities, established in 1992 by the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities and the Ministry of Environment. Seventeen municipalities took part in the programme, which was concluded in 1996. Ten professional institutions contributed to the programme. One of the municipalities involved was Lardal in Vestfold.
Lardal: Active, independent environmental policy
In Lardal, there is a genuine interest in and will to practise eco-management both administratively and politically. Over the past ten years, Lardal has changed from being a municipality under order to make environmental improvements into a municipality with an aggressive and independent environmental policy. A local adaptation of sustainable development with the emphasis on interaction between the local community and ecological solutions is one of the cornerstones of Lardal´s strategy. Lardal aims to be a good place to live in now and in the future.
The local authorities first made binding, ecological promises in 1987. The municipal bye-laws emphasise environmental protection and lay down guidelines for the rest of the municipality´s activities. Good environmental planning has been one of Lardal´s watchwords for many years. The local council has used its authority to protect the local rivers and water resources by implementing a plan for the part of the Numedal River that runs through Lardal and by adopting a development plan for the Lågendal outdoor museum. The local authorities have also created footpaths and culture trails, restored historical fisheries dating back to the 14th century, set up places for the disabled and elderly to fish, and built an outdoor amphitheatre for concerts. Work in the terrain is carried out on the principle of a nature-friendly approach. Lardal´s contribution as an eco-municipality has attracted attention well beyond Norway´s borders and has laid the foundation for a nature and culture-based economic development.
The aim of the project entitled Sustainable Local Communities
is to design a model for more sustainable consumption and for sustainable production. This can be done by reducing transport requirements and energy consumption, focusing on repair and maintenance of products and changing to a healthier family diet. This is the reason why the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority started a two-year project in 1996 called “Sustainable Local Communities” lasting for two years, in which seven municipalities are participating. The local authorities have joined forces with families, local business enterprise and NGOs in an effort to make the local community more sustainable. This
project will generate ideas for things everyone can do at work or in their free time.
Røros: Tourism and families
Røros in the county of South Trøndelag is one of seven municipalities taking part in Sustainable Local Communities project. This municipality aims to involve 140 “green” families actively in the project. These families will start a step-by-step process that will produce significant results on the long term. The green families are one of the two main thrusts of Røros´ efforts. The other is tourism. The tourist industry is very important to Røros and the tourism project has necessarily been given a long-term perspective. The local authorities have enlisted the help of the tourist board and large hotels in the municipality. The hotels will change over to a more eco-efficient, resource-saving form of management, and the activities they offer tourists will require little in the way of resources and will be based on local attractions. Sleighrides and guided tours on foot through the streets of Røros will figure high on the agenda. The use of local resources is an important issue for the local authorities in many contexts. The local dairy in Røros produces “eco-milk” and wishes to launch more eco-products in the future. Venison of elk and reindeer followed by cloudberries are popular dishes on festive occasions. A major “outhouse” project initiated by local authorities involves the repair of 300-400 outbuildings, using local resources such as birch bark for roofing and timber from the adjacent forests. Local craftsmen who are familiar with traditional building methods will help to keep these cultural traditions alive.
How can we ensure that the intentions of the convention on biological diversity are also followed up at local level? This question forms the basis for a pilot programme initiated by the Ministry of Environment in 1994 in which seven municipalities are taking part. Karmøy in the county of Rogaland and Alta in the county of Finnmark are two of these municipalities.
Karmøy: Plan for development and management
For many years, the natural areas in Karmøy have been under considerable pressure. It was therefore necessary to protect some of the remaining areas, but this could not be done through a government protection plan. One of the most distinctive features of Karmøy is its vulnerable heather moorland, which has been reduced in scope and in quality due to acid precipitation and lack of care. There are several species here that are also on the national endangered species list. By combining a management plan with a development plan, Karmøy has adopted an overall plan for the area which also ensures adequate protection of its biological diversity. The goals for municipal work on biodiversity, as formulated by the Ministry of Environment, are
• to build up knowledge of and expertise in biodiversity and include this in the basis for decision- making that can affect biodiversity
• to make use of land resources and biological resources in such a way that biodiversity is protected and conserved on the short and long term
• to ensure that pollution and disruptive activities do not cause loss of biodiversity
These goals form the basis for municipal planning and administration in Karmøy in areas where biodiversity is affected.
Alta: Orchids and butterflies
Global and regional problems arise as the sum total of local action. If biological diversity is to be preserved, good land-use management is the most important policy instrument and the local authorities therefore have a vital part to play in following up the convention on biological diversity. In Alta in the county of Finnmark, situated at about 70oN, information about the biodiversity in 137 delimited geographical areas has been collected, systematised and described. Here the themes range from large beasts of prey to butterflies. This documentation is important for land-use management and other administrative decisions in the municipality.
The municipality of Alta is known for its rare species of insects and plants and this applies particularly to butterflies and orchids. Unique species of butterflies are found on the hillsides of the Alta Valley, while orchids, also including many rare species, occur on the limestone ground in the mixed forest areas in the municipality. Some important areas are protected under the Nature Conservation Act, while the municipality is endeavouring to the best of its ability to safeguard others through local measures with the help of available planning tools. In safeguarding nature´s diversity, it is important for the local authorities to manage land use well, make use of the available policy instruments, spread information and make the necessary preparations. It is important to involve the local inhabitants in the work of conserving biological diversity. This can be done in many ways, for example by laying nature trails and combining outdoor recreation with the enjoyment of nature. Direct information is distributed among the local population in the form of fact sheets and leaflets. Priority is also given to awareness raising.
Is there some way of making sure that that the character of a built-up area, its buildings and cultural and historical peculiarities are preserved and renewed in development plans drawn up by the planning authorities and the local authorities? A thorough analysis of the location can give good results. This entails drawing on the expertise and experience of experts, such as architects, historians, engineers, cultural workers and other people who know the local conditions and who can all work as a team. In 1991 the Ministry of Environment initiated a programme for urban design. Significant elements of this work were the establishment of county fora for urban design in the counties and the development of location analyses. A number of other ministries and directorates have participated. The main constituents of a location analysis are the historical development of the area, its natural and landscape qualities, the organisation of the built-up area and buildings and other individual elements. A location analysis is a useful aid to ensure a good basis for decisions. Hokksund in the county of Buskerud is one of the places that has carried out a good analysis of its own development.
Hokksund: “Station Road” promoted to main street
The small town of Hokksund is characterised by long axes formed by roads, railway line and river which all cut through its centre. The location analysis of Hokksund recommended upgrading Station Road to main street, and four important points along the road were cultivated. One of these was the main square. The buildings along Station Road present a cavalcade of the growth of this small railway town through 150 years. A decision was made to build on these characteristics. The location analysis gave Hokksund a universally accepted plan for the town centre. One of the most important aspects of the analysis process was the team work, the contact between the various expert groups and the people. Since the completion of the refurbishment work, a number of house-owners in
Station Road have started renovating their properties in line with the recommendations in the analysis of Hokksund´s architectural traditions.
It is important to ensure that all the environmental aspects are given a central place in municipal development planning. This can be achieved by incorporating certain important principles for environmental impact assessment in the planning. These principles stipulate the need both for public participation and for an early clarification of what future changes can entail for man, nature and cultural assets. Early knowledge of environmental impact is an important means of ensuring that environmental considerations become an integral part of planning. In 1995 the Ministry of Environment was the initiator of a project to incorporate environmental impact assessments in planning. Four municipalities are involved in a pilot project. These include Ål in the county of Buskerud.
Ål in Hallingdal: Environmental choices are visible
Sundre, a small railway town on the Oslo-Bergen line, is the administrative centre of the municipality of Ål. It was once the heart of a small but flourishing rural community. It now has 2000 inhabitants and is the commercial centre for the whole municipality. Through their work on the land-use plan for Sundre, the local authorities have contributed experience from environmental impact studies in land-use planning. Sundre was facing a large number of major environmental problems, such as transport and land use, concentration of urban functions and infilling. At the same time, it wanted to give consideration to green spaces and road-edge vegetation and to outdoor recreation and the cultural milieu in Sundre. The plan also had to take into account the barrier effect created by Highway 7, the Hallingdal River and the Bergen line, all of which run through Sundre. Noise pollution from the road and railway were also themes of the environmental impact assessment. The local authorities wanted a broad discussion of environment issues at an early stage in the planning process. This included information, mobilisation of the public, interdisciplinary work in the municipality and discussions with the regional environmental authorities. A number of reported problems were laid out for public debate. Meetings were arranged between politicians, local inhabitants and the affected public authorities. As a result of this process, the municipal authorities have established some major environmental premises on which planning solutions can be based. The municipal authorities lost no time in clarifying Sundre´s most important environmental qualities and the environmental challenges and choices facing the small town were made visible. This means that the inhabitants can check to see that major environmental concerns are being included in draft plans that are set out for public perusal.
There are many places where there is heavy pressure to develop land which may represent major natural or agricultural assets, but the value of this land is often poorly documented at the start of the planning process. The local and county authorities and other bodies often have a need for a joint data-based information system in which environmental and land data from different sources can be combined. A geographical information system (GIS) of this kind will provide the municipal authorities with a good basis for decisions regarding land use. The Ministry of Environment will contribute to the establishment of county-by-county land information systems through its Programme for Land Documentation.
Vestfold: GIS - a joint tool
For several years now, the county environmental department in Vestfold has been building up an environmental database to register land and environmental assets in the county´s municipalities. They have been doing this in collaboration with the municipal and regional sector authorities in the county. The environmental database contains GIS-based thematic maps for a number of important sectors, such as nature, agriculture, cultural monuments, recreation, landscape and civilian preparedness. There are many indications that there are fewer land use conflicts and that they are resolved more quickly when clear information about the land is available during the planning process.
Environmental audits are being used as a tool and an aid to test the effectiveness of environmental efforts at local level. An environmental audit is a systematic, independent internal review to check whether the results of environmental work tally with the targets. An environmental audit also focuses on whether the methods used to achieve goals are effective. To be more precise the work of an environmental audit is a study of documents and reports to see whether there are any deviations between targets and results. This is done by interviewing key people in the organisation. An environmental audit will confirm whether or not the environmental targets have been attained. Eight municipalities and one county municipality participated in a project to test environmental auditing. The participants selected the areas that were to be audited. One of the participating municipalities was Bømlo in the county of Hordaland.
Bømlo: Fish farming audit
”The localisation of fish farms” was the object of an environmental audit in Bømlo which focused on the conflicting interests in land use of fish farming and nature conservation, outdoor recreation and water quality in the sea. The environmental audit gave the local authorities a status report of all the fish farms and this revealed illegal localisation of farms and a poorly defined division of responsibilities between the regional fisheries authority and the local authorities in the matter of localisation. The knowledge thus gained by the local authorities from the eco-audit will be utilised, for example, in multi-year municipal plans. The executive council in Bømlo has now decided to incorporate eco-audits in the municipality´s planning system and use them actively as an environmental tool.
As a follow-up to the EPLL reform, a national pilot project for municipal environmental reporting was established in 1994 in the county of Buskerud. The intention of this project was to contribute to greater environmental responsibility and a more active partnership between the municipal and central environmental authorities. This will be done by developing an efficient system of environmental reporting between the local and central authorities.
The agricultural authorities and six municipalities are taking part in this project along with the environmental directorates, the county environmental department and the county municipality as the regional cultural authority. In many ways, the six municipalities represent a cross-section of Norwegian municipalities. The project aims to
• develop a model for teamwork between the government and the municipal leaders in connection with environmental reporting
• propose a set of indicators on which reporting can be based. These shall, for example, show how the municipalities contribute to meeting national environmental targets; they shall be management-oriented and be separated from primary data for statistical purposes
• propose measures to simplify and make more efficient the collection of environmental statistics from the municipalities, including measures to make public environmental statistics and data as helpful as possible for individual municipality in their work on their own environmental strategies and environmental indicators
The reporting system must be designed in such a way that it
• achieves a balance between government control and local self-government
• can be used in the municipalities´ ordinary
control of finances and results
• is based on stability and predictability in routines, while the content of the control dialogue will have to be changed over time
• underpins work at a regional level
• surveys environmental indicators within the field of agriculture
• can make use of basic data received from sources other than the municipality itself
The working method in the project is characterised by dialogue and learning and in this sense is in keeping with the principles of openness and process in Agenda 21.
The development of control systems and indicators - e.g. through “green key figures” - at local level can be instrumental in increasing participation and cooperation between various operators in the local community. The project can thus also help to concretise what is understood by the concept of sustainable development at local level. The final report with recommendations to the environmental directorates who commissioned the project will be available in June 1997.
The Idea Bank Foundation was established to promote greater use of experience gained from practical experiments that can be the building blocks of sustainable development. The Idea Bank does this by charting and channelling experience gained from experiments carried out under the direction of public administration, the business sector and NGOs. The channelling work takes the form of talks, seminars, study tours, idea catalogues, libraries, exhibitions, advice and an electronic database. The Idea Bank also contributes to studies of the future in which the results of the experiments are utilised. The themes involved are indicated in the headings in the Idea Bank´s accounting system, which includes a total of 34 subjects:
• Nature and man - environmental protection and resource saving
• Across national borders - cooperation and global unity
• The good community - democracy and togetherness
The Idea Bank was founded in 1991, as a follow-up to “The Idea Bank in Practice”, originally part of the Alternative Future Project (now ProSus). The Idea Bank´s survey and liaison activities are concentrated on the Scandinavian countries, but cooperation also exists between similar institutions throughout Europe through the ESIE (European Social Innovations Exchange). Since 1994, most of the Idea Bank´s work has focused on promoting processes relating to Local Agenda 21 in local communities in Norway. In support of this work, the Idea Bank first received a grant of NOK 1.5 million over the national budget in 1996 and this was repeated in 1997. This year the Idea Bank has a total budget of just under NOK 3 million and five permanent employees.