9th Annual Conference, Gent, Belgium, 15-18 November 2001
of the European Environmental Advisory Councils EEAC
Indicators for sustainability
- environmental indicators and sustainable development trends
Hosted by the Environment and Nature Council of Flanders (MiNa-Raad)
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Friday, November 16th - ABSTRACTS |
Workshop 1 - Selection and use of indicators on the state of the environment within national policy
Walloon Environmental Council for Sustainable Development (CWEDD)- Alain Mairesse
Czech Council for Sustainable Development- Frantisek Skoda
Dutch Council for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM-Raad)- Tiny van der Werff
Polish National Council on Environmental Protection (PROS) - Tadeusz Borys & Tomasz Winnicki
Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) - Paul Rose
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)- E.C. Mackey
Workshop 2 - Selection and use of indicators on the performance of sectors within national policy
Danish Nature Council (NR)- Per Christensen
Finnish Council for Natural Resources (FCNR)- Harriet Lonka
Finnish National Council for Sustainable Development (FNCSD)- Ulla Oksanen -
Italian Service for Sustainable Development- Francesco La Camera
Portuguese Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CNADS)- Victor Martins
Countryside Council for Wales (CCW)- Simon Bilsborough
English Nature- Vicky Etheridge
Session 3 - Selection of environmental indicators for sustainable development
European Environment Agency- David Stanners & Peter Bosch
Statistics Sweden- Prof. Joachim Vogel
Swedish Environmental Advisory Council (MVB)- Siv Näslund
Session 4 - Future use of indicators for sustainable development
European Commission, Directorate General Environment- Marc Vanheukelen
Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development (FRDO-CFDD)- Hans Bruyninckx
Environmental indicators in Wallonia
Walloon Environmental Council for Sustainable Development (CWEDD) - Alain Mairesse
This presentation focuses on the official Walloon 'State of the Environment' reports, published regularly
since 1982. These reports are prepared by universities and experts under the coordination of the administration
, and since 1988, CWEDD advises the authorities about them. Already at the beginning of the nineties, CWEDD
was asking for a global and transversal approach of environmental problems as well as for a regular
observation of evolving environmental indicators. The need for indicators allowing to assess economical,
social and environmental aspects together, does not suppress the need for reliable, comparable and feasible
indicators of the environment. The State of the Environment Report 2000 'Environment in Wallonia at the
turn of the century' made available a transversal approach of the environment, covering water, air,
biodiversity, agriculture, forestry, waste and some other human activities. These areas were treated
together at the same time, in the same book and with the same method and presentation. The CWEDD is
legally founded to advice about the State of the Environment and to publish a 'note de prospective',
on the State of the Environment Report and on the consultation thereabout. This 2000- an original
method of work has been applied. This method combined, at the highest degree possible, the
competences of about 15 persons (members and staff) from various horizons, profiles and experiences.
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Indicator systems in the Czech Republica
Czech Council for Sustainable Development- Frantisek Skoda
The CSDC will present the development, the use and the international comparison of environmental indicators
in the Czech Republic. Indicator systems for the description and evaluation of the state of the environment
were used for the first time in the yearly report on the environment in 1993. Since then they have been used
continually, they have become a separate chapter of the Czech state environmental policies and statistics and
related reports and their differentiation and descriptive value has grown. The presentation will clarify how
through the years the Czech indicator set has been based on OECD, UN CSD, EC, EEA and Eurostat findings and
how a well functioning statistical service is necessary for establishing a sound system of sustainability
indicators. The latest trends include co-operation with the WHO in establishing a set of environmental
health indicators and a set of 64 sustainability indicators within the national sustainable development
strategy and the development of a system of locally or regionally relevant sets of indicators. For the
CCSD, the primary sense of establishing a nation wide indicator system is mostly international
comparison, although indicators are a rather useful tool in decision making processes as well.
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The VROM-raad will give an overview of the current environmental and nature performance indicators used
in the Netherlands and discuss the policy relevance of these indicators. The indicators are: a) Environmental
performance indicators: Environmental pressure indicators and Environmental performance indicators for the
target groups; b) Indicators for nature conservation: Natural Capital Index (NCI-framework), Species Group
Trend Index, Red List Indicator, Policy Target Achievement Indicator on Ecological Main Network; c) Indicator
for decoupling (environmental pressure related to the GDP-growth). Although the Netherlands have not yet
developed a clear-cut sustainable development indicator, the VROM-raad will present some ideas on this
topic (e.g. Sustainable National Income).
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The PROS-presentation will outline the objectives and realisation of research concerning sustainability
indicators in Poland. After the determination of preliminary sets of sustainability indicators for various
administration levels and inter-relating them with strategic planning procedures applied on the national,
regional and local level through research in 1997-2000, now the research is aimed at the operationalisation
of the sustainable development concept to meet the requirements of sustainable development monitoring at the
various administration levels. The research objectives related to the development of principles and
structure of a sustainability indicators implementation model on the local level, were realised during
2000-2001. This year the first stage of verification and implementation of the prepared sets of local
sustainability indicators was investigated. Experiences gained at this stage should allow the
construction of a regional model (planned for 2002) and a national model (planned for 2003),
to be based on similar principles. The research cycle including the phases of concept development
and implementation at all administration levels (local, regional, and national) should be rounded
up before Poland joins the European Union.
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This presentation discusses the necessity of a framework of principles, standards and controls to ensure
that biodiversity indicators work together as an efficient and valued tool. Indicators are one of the only
tools available to measure biodiversity, raise awareness of key issues and integrate biodiversity into
sustainable development. Good indicators of biodiversity need to be easy to understand, practical and reliable.
To ensure they are easy to understand they must have resonance with their intended audience, and have a very
clear objective supported by a simple message. Practicality requires something that is measurable,
affordable and repeatable. Good historic data are a bonus. There are several factors (eg. transparently
testing and proving the indicator, backing it with good data and interpretational expertise) that can
improve reliability, which is also critical to ensure that the message is believable and sufficiently
robust to serve as a basis for action. Using these principles one can still create a confusing
diversity of biodiversity indicators, with potentially conflicting messages and decreasing reliability.
For indicators to be useful, a framework of principles should be agreed and implemented, where
messages could then be aggregated with confidence despite being derived from different indicators.
The Communication from the Commission concerning EC Biodiversity Action Plans in the areas of
Conservation of Natural Resources, Agriculture, Fisheries and Development and Economic Cooperation
Section 4.1 is a very useful starting point for developing this framework, according to JNCC,
since it has broad agreement and the principles appear very sound.
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The natural heritage of Scotland.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)
- E.C. Mackey
This presentation focuses on trends and indicators in the natural heritage of Scotland. Scotland retains a
rich complement of habitats and species, many elements of which are of international importance. Threats to
biodiversity and the causes of species declines are often similar to those in the rest of Europe. That holds
true on land and in fresh waters, and in the ecology of marine life. SNH demonstrates the analysis and
documentation of natural heritage trends in Scotland, as a way of assembling and disseminating information
on the state of Scotland's natural heritage for the widest possible use. In this presentation trends are
described from a forthcoming publication, entitled 'Natural Heritage Trends: Scotland 2001' and criteria
are considered for natural heritage indicators, in the context of sustainable development and informed by
those identified in the European Commission report on 'Environment and Integration Indicators' to the
1999 Helsinki Summit. Taking account of strategic information needs and international reporting
obligations, SNH argues that trend profiling and indicators can provide a consistent and systematic
basis for tracking sustainable development and for reporting on the state of the environment and
natural heritage.
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The use of indicators in the Danish planning system
Danish Nature Council (NR)
- Per Christensen
This presentation will outline not only the present situation in the Danish planning system but also how
indicators are introduced as a means to create better governance and clearer goals. Until recently indicators
weren't used in Denmark. The traditional planning system worked with a fairly traditional system of broadly
formulated objectives and targets that were not operationalised in a quantifiable and measurable way. This
made the performance of the planning system difficult to evaluate. Recently this has changed as the use of
indicators has been propagated by different governmental bodies as well as a host of ngo´s, and the DNC.
Indicators will now surely move to the top of the agenda in the years to come. The presentation will
describe the dissemination of the ideas of indicators within the broader field of nature and environment
policies and some of the arguments for the use of indicators. The DNC finds that indicators also have a
significant role to play in enhancing the governance capacity of the planning system. The Danish planning
system has developed from a fairly simple governance structure to a patchwork of plans, objectives and
targets that are difficult to realign with each other. Local Agenda 21, Strategic Environmental Impact
Assessment (SEA) as well as the newly proposed Danish 'Strategic Environmental Planning' (SEP) can be
seen as steps towards a more integrated, comprehensive and governable system. Indicators definitely
play a role here, especially in the SEP.
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This presentation describes the process to develop Finnish criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.
Policy makers, researchers, stakeholders and other interest groups, listed relevant indicators, which would need
further research. a national project to develop national, regional and local level criteria and indicators for
sustainable forest management was launched in 1995. Result of the first round was that the working groups
proposed some 250 national indicators based on the framework of the Pan-European criteria set from which 64
quantitative and 103 descriptive indicators were selected for further development. After that the Finnish
Forest Research Institute was assigned to compile information for the national indicators. Furthermore a
participatory project was launched in the Pirkanmaa region to test the applicability of the national
criteria and indicators in the planning and evaluation of forest management at the regional level. This
project indicated that the number of sub-national level indicators should be considerably smaller than
the number of national indicators and that the measurability and data availability during the selection
of the indicators are of utmost importance. For the second round in 1998 a new working group was
appointed. The results indicated that the process was much slower than expected and it was difficult
to decrease the number of indicators from 164 to 47. Collecting and compiling of information was
more complicated and expensive. The process was open, transparent, participatory, democratic and
consensus-oriented.
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FNCSD presents a study on the interest of indicators to decision-makers and politicians. The Finnish Environment
Ministry published a national set of sustainable development indicators in spring 2000 developed in cooperation
with a multi-stakeholder working group including all relevant ministries and research institutes. The
publication has been distributed widely and the media has also taken notice of it. A specific campaign was
launched to introduce the indicators to the Members of the Finnish Parliament. The indicators were presented
to two parliamentary committees. A follow-up was done by interviewing the members afterwards individually.
The purpose of the interviews was to determine among other things whether the decision-makers were
interested in the indicators, if they had used them after the presentation or intended to use them in the
future, and how they would use them. The nature of political decision-making was also questioned, in order
to analyse the suitability of indicators to it. The interviews revealed that the decision-makers and
politicians see indicators as potential tools in searching background information and in the political
debate. The present set of sustainable development indicators was found to be very useful. The
decision-makers would like to have more regional breakdowns in the indicators but also include
international comparison where appropriate. Other uses included decision-making, target setting,
monitoring impacts of decisions, back up to personal opinions and a tool for thinking.
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Abstract to be submitted.
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In this presentation the CNADS state that because of the economical, social and environmental diversity
of the member states of the European Union (EU) a number of problems arise on the definition of common
indicators for sustainable development. The difficulties will not appear with the economical indicators, which
based on the economical convergence process, but they will emerge in the social and institutional spheres, and
above all in the environmental field. It might be acceptable to find economic and social indicators that will
adjust to all the regions and states of the EU, nevertheless it won't be commendatory to use environmental
indicators that will arise only from the economical activity. From country to country the environmental
systems differ in their essence. Especially between the Northern and the Southern/ Mediterranean dynamics
of the EU the differences are evident. Therefore, not only biodiversity, coastal zones and landscape
issues should assume particular importance in the South, but also the prevalence of the specific forest
and agricultural systems should be taken into consideration in the 'European' indicators, at the same
level as the indicators associated to the economical activity, for example, the sectoral indicators of
Cardiff.
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This presentation examines if the environmental and agricultural indicators proposed by the EEAC are suitable for Southern Europe and specially for Portugal. The three environmental and two agriculture indicators reflect mainly the problems of Northern European countries. The need for intersected indicators on sustainable forest management and environment are discussed, with emphasis on the need for the policies to combat desertification impact assessment. The irrigated agriculture represents more than 75% of withdrawals of Southern Countries, and the presence of nitrogen and phosphorus in rivers are not the only indicators of environmental degradation. Discussion is proposed on other irrigation water quality indicators such as Sodium Adsorption Ratio, the Electrical Conductivity, and Nitrate, together with the percentage of Agro-environmental measures in the Environmental and Agricultural Budget. A paper on southern agriculture specific issues, linking biodiversity with new agricultural trends, under the new sixth EAP and EUSD Strategy perspectives and targets-management of natural resources.
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This presentation will explore the methodology and process used to develop an 'environmental sustainability' cross cutting theme within the 2.4bn Objective 1 programme for West and the Valleys 2000-06. It will consider the development of an 'environmental sustainability' strategy for the programme, based on Wales's State of the Environment Reports, and how this informed the Strategic Environmental Appraisal (SEA) of the draft Objective 1 programme. It will detail how this SEA then formed a framework for determining the environmental priorities within each priority and measure of the Objective 1 programme, and how this analysis led to the identification of relevant programme-wide environmental indicators and also measure-specific environmental targets. It will chart the development of measure-specific environmentally-led selection criteria, which are now used to assess the degree to which individual projects meet the required targets. It will then explore the formulation of guidance to project applicants, concerning how environmental sustainability can be integrated into Objective 1 projects. Finally, it will consider the challenges associated with monitoring environmental targets.
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This illustration presents the UK comprehensive set of environmental indicators, which form part of a suite that help deliver the Government's sustainable development strategy. The full suite of sustainable development indicators comprise of 15 headline indicators, which address key issues for the UK are representative of the wider sustainability picture and resonate with the public, and 150 core indicators. The UK strategy does not separate out 'economic', 'social', and 'environmental' indicators - all the indicators have been developed to support a set of sustainability objectives which cover the cross-cutting themes of: A Sustainable Economy, Building Sustainable Communities, Managing the Environment and Resources and International Co-operation and Development. This is very important for successful integration of the three strands and encourages the development of wider links, for example, between health, recreation and open green space. One of the most important aspects of the UK indicators is their vertical as well as horizontal integration. They have also acted as the criteria for appraisal of regional policies and strategies and will help to inform the new community strategies that effectively give local government a sustainable development duty. The 40 environmental indicators were developed from a rigorous consultation exercise that EN fully participated in and have been successfully adopted at the national, regional, local and sectoral level. EN used the relevant biodiversity indicators to develop indicators at the regional and local level and for the economic sectors which have the most influence on biodiversity.
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The European Environment Agency (EEA) produces assessments based on (environmental) indicators to support policy. With the publication of the Sustainable Development Strategy for the European Union, and the European Commissions' intention to publish a progress report on sustainable development for the prime ministers each year in spring, the EEA becomes involved in regular assessments of progress in the environmental leg of sustainable development. The selection of the indicators for the EU progress report will be done by the policy makers, which is a good starting point to increase the accountability for their actions and which eventually may lead to "sustainability convergence criteria". The EEA has developed a number of tools, frameworks and typologies which will be applied and probably need to be extended to provide an integrated assessment of progress around the limited selection of sustainable development indicators.
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Social indicators designed for social planning have a history of some 40 years. Indicators were developed in many places, and in waves over this period, at national, regional and international level, with general as well as domain focus, by the research community as well as administrative bodies. Development in this area has not been linear, but has found its mainstream form in national and international context. At the European level we now have regular surveys designed to deliver social indicators annually. This paper summarises the objectives, strategies, data collection, dissemination and uses of social indicators, as well as some of the national practices. Furthermore, social reporting at national and international level, based on social indicators, is discussed.
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Indicators: the Swedish experience
Swedish Environmental Advisory Council (MVB)
- Siv Näslund
The MVB will present the Swedish experience with the developing of indicators. Sweden has known three processes of indicator developing in the frame of sustainable development and environment: a) twelve Green Headline indicators, that reflect important environmental problems, but also the factors underlying these problems as well as the transition towards an ecologically sustainable society; b) development of indicators (about 150 indicators are proposed to monitor progress towards fifteen Environmental Quality Objectives in Sweden which aim at handing over to the next generation a society where the environmental problems are solved; c) thirty indicators for sustainable development to describe sustainable development in Sweden, structured along four themes: efficiency, contribution and equality, adaptability and values, and resources for coming generations.
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European Commission, Directorate General Environment
- Marc Vanheukelen
Abstract to be submitted.
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The underlying discourse in the field of the development and use of sustainability indicators is strongly suggesting that different social actors and their representational institutional equivalents have an important role to play. In this contribution the FRDO-CFDD wishes to do three things: a) Take a closer look at he theoretical and policy arguments that support this claim. b) Explain how the involvement of participatory/advisory bodies has been organized and has worked in the Belgian context. We will more precisely elaborate on the role of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development in this matter. The Council is currently working on an advise on indicators. c) Draw some lessons and conclusions from this experience in light of the theoretical arguments that can be useful for the further involvement of different social groups in the dynamics of developing and using indicators for sustainable development. This contribution should hence shed light on issues such as the use and access to knowledge; the legitimacy of the involvement and role of actors; the link between advisory bodies and policy makers; etc. These issues are of broader importance in the debate on participation and sustainable development and are hence of interest to all actors involved in the participatory dynamics of sustainable development.
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