Ecosystem Planning in Florida - Solving Regional Problems through Local Decision-Making

Ecosystem Planning in Florida - Solving Regional Problems through Local Decisionmaking, Samuel David Brody, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008, 230 pp., £65.00 (h/b) When asked to review this book by Samuel Brody, I was somewhat hesitant. Having in recent years repeatedly heard of the rapid decline of the Everglades ecosystem, the human-induced threats to the Florida Keys, the extensive urban sprawl and its impacts on ecosystems in Florida, I have to admit I was rather sceptical about what could be learned from 'ecosystem planning in Florida'. Well, to set this straight, I have to concede that I was wrong and that I actually found an excellent book that merits a wide readership, not just in the US, but also in the rest of the world. It is in fact one of the few publications I know of that do not simply theorise about what could contribute to effective ecosystem planning, but that also provides for some extensive empirical and statistically backedup evidence. In this context, it is important that the book is based on over five years of research on ecosystem-based planning in Florida, which was funded by the US National Science Foundation, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Lincoln Land Institute and the Texas A&M University Sustainable Coastal Margins Program. The starting point to the book is the assumption that '[t]houghtful policies and actions at the local level can often protect critical habitats of regional significance more effectively and less expensively than the best intentioned state or federal protection schemes' and that '. effective implementation of the approach will be achieved at the local level with sound planning efforts' (pp. 2-3). In order to achieve its main aim, namely '. to provide [for an] evidencedbased examination of the topic that can inform both practitioners and academics on how to manage ecological systems from a local-level perspective' (preface), the book is divided into four main parts. Part 1 deals with the conceptualisation and measurement of local ecosystem plan quality, focusing on local plans (NB: Florida's local authorities' spatial plans). Part 2 deals with the (planning) process and the factors influencing local ecosystem plan quality. Part 3 revolves around actual, i.e. observed plan implementation and part 4, finally, establishes planning implications, providing for some overall recommendations. 'Because ecosystem management requires a holistic, interdisciplinary, and boundary spanning approach to decision-making' (p. 13), various literatures and concepts underlying ecosystem management and planning are analysed in part 1, mainly focusing on ecosystem science, organisational design and collaborative planning. With regards to key concepts of ecosystem approaches to management, Brody provides for a useful comparison with traditional resource management. Introducing organisational design, he draws on aspects of inter-organisational collaboration and systems thinking and learning organisations. On collaborative planning, finally, while Brody states that it undoubtedly makes an important contribution to achieving a better understanding on how to manage ecological systems, he also remarks that there are 'several gaps that deter from its ability to inform a definition of sound ecosystem planning' (p. 26). He then goes on to introduce nine main principles of effective ecosystem management and planning, revolving around aspects of protection, sense of place, systems thinking, pro-active planning and management, collaboration and relationships, education and training. In order to be able to evaluate practice, a local ecosystem plan coding protocol and measurement framework is introduced next. The starting point for this is Chapin and Kaiser's (1979) core characteristics of plan quality: fact base, goals and policies. In the plan coding protocol, Brody translates these and two other characteristics (inter-organisation coordination and capabilities and implementation mechanisms) into a total of 123 indicators that are to be used for the evaluation of local comprehensive plans in Florida. …