A team from the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) helped organize a successful and robust Massachusetts component of a recent international day of dialogue about environmental regulations and policies.
CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano and students Maria Delfin Auza (MPPA ’13) and Lindie Martin (MPP ’14) spent the summer recruiting nearly 200 applicants from across Massachusetts to fill 100 spots for a guided discussion last month about biodiversity in our region and policies that affect our natural environment. The Massachusetts conversation, held at the Museum of Science in Boston, was one of 34 that took place that day in 25 countries as part of the World Wide Views on Biodiversity project. CPPA is involved thanks to a university Public Service Endowment grant to the Science, Technology and Society Initiative (STS), a CPPA-affiliated endeavor that conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.
“We are incredibly honored to participate in such a creative project,” said STS Director Jane Fountain. “What’s so innovative about the World Wide Views in Biodiversity project is that it gives everyday people, who are not scientists or environmental experts, a voice in international environmental policymaking discussions.”
Results from all of the sessions around the world have been compiled into a report, which is being released this week at the meeting in Hyderabad, India, of the U.N. Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity. When looked at altogether, the results indicate significant similarities of opinion between countries, across continents and among different age groups.
Participants in Boston and the other three U.S. locations — Denver, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., — agreed with their counterparts around the world: Political action should be taken in order to stop the global decline in biodiversity. Many also thought education at all levels is one of the most important steps to help protect the Earth’s biological diversity.
Despite the general consistency between views in developed and developing countries, a significant difference emerged regarding who should pay for preserving biodiversity. The majority of participants in all of the sessions thought developed countries should pay the main part of costs for preserving biodiversity. But people in developing countries were more likely than those in developed countries to say that developing countries should pay the main part of the cost for preserving biodiversity.
Martin, a senior majoring in environmental conservation and a member of CPPA’s accelerated Master of Public Policy program, said this project has helped strengthen her social science research skills and has given her a sense of personal satisfaction. “I am passionate about helping people and giving our community a voice that can be heard on an international level,” Martin said. “This project tested a fundamental model that has the potential to change the direction of our planet’s future.”