RCE Paris Seine[type]

Environmental Justice in an Intercultural Frame — Empowering Local Communities for Sustainability
CSV
Basic Information
Title of project : 
Environmental Justice in an Intercultural Frame — Empowering Local Communities for Sustainability
Submitting RCE: 
RCE Paris Seine
Contributing organization(s) : 
L’Association ePLANETe Blue (RCE Paris Seine);
Waikato University (RCE Waikato), in liaison with the MRMT (Motiti Rohe Moana Trust)
Focal point(s) and affiliation(s)
Name: 
Prof. Martin O’Connor
Organizational Affiliation: 
Président de l’Association ePLANETe Blue, France
E-mail: 
eplanete.blue@gmail.com
Format of project: 
PPTx, Website and supporting PDFs
Language of project: 
English
Date of submission:
Friday, July 20, 2018
Web link: 
Not yet on-line (expected late 2018). The dedicated website will be at http://eplanete.blue. Links will be established to documents maintained on various institutional websites (e.g., Environment Court, Waitangi Tribunal…)
Additional resources: 
Case study documents and other on-line materials for deliberation support will progressively be made available on the ‘ePLANETe’ platform, during late 2018 and through 2019.
Does this project link to any education and/or sustainable development policy or policies?: 
Yes
This project engages, at a local territorial scale, with several facets of the justice and sustainability purposes of the New Zealand Resource Management Act (RMA) and related legislation. It is intended to provide teaching resources of wide usefulness i
At what level is the policy operating?: 
Local
This project engages, at a local territorial scale, with several facets of the justice and sustainability purposes of the New Zealand Resource Management Act (RMA) and related legislation. It is intended to provide teaching resources of wide usefulness i
At what level is the policy operating?: 
National
Geographical & Education Information
Region: 
Asia-Pacific
Country: 
France
New Zealand
Location(s): 
The geographical heart of this project is Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Collaboration is ongoing with colleagues at the RCE Paris-Seine in the Greater Paris district of France.
Address of focal point institution for project: 
The focal point institution is the MRMT (Motiti Rohe Moana Trust, whose contact person in liaison with Waikato University is T.A. Sayers, Tauranga, New Zealand (email: ta.sayers@gmail.com).
The focal point for the development and on-line availability of the teaching and deliberation support resources is the Association ePLANETe Blue, whose contact person is Martin O’Connor (email: eplanete.blue@gmail.com).
Ecosystem(s):
Agricultural, Coastal
Marine
Target Audience:
Community, Higher, Secondary, Teacher Ed.
Socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of the area : 
Motiti Island is a small island offshore in the Bay of Plenty in Aotearoa (New Zealand). It has been inhabited for many generations by Maori, and the present-day inhabitants can trace their heritage back to early settlements on the island, as well as links with mainland communities. Current economic activities on the island include agriculture as well as fishing. The island is in the heart of a major commercial fishing zone and is also popular for a variety of recreational fishing, diving and other marine coastal activities. It was recently the focus of attention due to the foundering of a large commercial cargo ship which, until remedial actions were taken, threatened surrounding seabed, reef and coastal areas with serious chemical pollution.
Description of sustainable development challenge(s) in the area the project addresses: 
Current sustainable development challenges for Motiti include, on the one hand the recognition given to descendants of original inhabitants as tangata whenua (people of the land) and, on the other hand, protection of a spectrum of environmental resources including indigenous marine biodiversity (as a food resource but also as a cultural value); freshwater resources and surrounding fisheries. Territorial governance challenges must be resolved simultaneously in terms of “who” and “what”, with a complex interfacing – framed in general terms by the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi -- of the tangata whenua with other local stakeholders on and near the island, and with regional and national representatives of the Crown. This interfacing is currently expressed through a variety of channels of dialogue and also of confrontation, including several cases before the Environment court and before the Waitangi Tribunal.
Contents
Status: 
Ongoing
Period: 
January, 2018
Rationale: 
The purpose of this project is to document, and develop as a teaching resource, the current cycle of Motiti territorial governance challenges that must be resolved simultaneously in terms of “who”, “what” and “why”. There is, as mentioned, a complex interfacing – framed in general terms by the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between Maori chiefs and the British Crown -- of the tangata whenua (people of the land) with other local stakeholders on and near the island, and with regional and national representatives of the Crown. This interfacing is currently expressed through a variety of channels of pragmatic dialogue, and also several channels of formal confrontation -- including several cases before the Environment court and before the Waitangi Tribunal addressing issues of political status, marine reserves, freshwater resources, land uses, fisheries sustainability, and roles in local governance. The sharing of information on the Motiti challenges for environmental & economic sustainability and for multi-cultural partnership is of great importance not only for local justice and sustainability but also as a “case study” of national and international value.
Objectives: 
The objective of this collaborative project is to support local Motiti stakeholders in their local development purposes, through the co-production and progressive on-line availability of documentation of their actions as collaborative learning and deliberation support resources. State-of-the art internet content management and interactive deliberation support tools are made available by the Association ePLANETe Blue (based in France), whose exploitation will facilitate the availability of information and analyses from recent and ongoing Environment Court and Waitangi Tribunal hearings.
Activities and/or practices employed: 
Analysis of Motiti justice and sustainability issues is carried out through interfacing several frameworks:
- Trust, duty and equity (as understood in legal traditions carried by the Crown);
- Upholding Mana maori / Tikanga (taonga, tino rangatiratanga, kaitiakitanga under the Treaty of Waitangi);
- Sustainability bottom lines — as framed in the NZ RMA (Resource Management Act 1990)
- The Social Dimension of Deprivation (as per Max-Neef, Sen…);
- Structures of material exploitation (cf., the 4 Cheaps as per Jason Moore (nature, work, energy, food; sometimes enlarged to include ‘care’ as a category of service);
- Structures of respect/exclusion (cf., UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People);
- Pertinent Western theories/principles of justice & Responsibility (Rawls, Jonas, etc.)
No one framing provides an adequate picture. Insights are gained from comparison (or confrontation) of the status given to different Arguments under each framework, in the eyes of different protagonists.
Size of academic audience: 
The development of this material is ongoing. Because of the Internet-based tools being employed, this material will be accessible to an unlimited number of people, in New Zealand and also world-wide.
Results: 
The frameworks for mobilization of empirical and methodological materials on-line are already operational (cf., the KerBabel deliberation support tools offered by the ‘ePLANETe’ platform). The substantive materials for Motiti will be integrated into the ‘ePLANETe’ platform progressively during 2018 and 2019, as the reference “case study” court actions proceed. Thus, the “results” of the project are inseparable from the progress in real time of these Environment Court and Waitangi Tribunal actions. As a pedagogic resource, this will continue to live and develop, and will provide a demonstration of methods of analysis and knowledge partnership potentially transferable to other situations of cross-cultural dialogue, environmental justice and sustainability.
Lessons learned: 
It is too early as yet to speak of lessons learned...
Key messages: 
The Motiti project addressing environmental Justice in an Intercultural Frame, is intended as a demonstration of the use of on-line collaborative learning and deliberation support tools (1) for empowering local communities in the pursuit of their sustainability goals and (2) for sharing of knowledge and experience across communities within Aotearoa/New Zealand and world-wide.
Relationship to other RCE activities: 
See above (collaboration between RCE Waitako and RCE Paris-Seine)
Funding: 
Documentation of the people involved and the resources mobilised, notably by the MRMT in the contact of their ongoing claims, is integrated progressively on the ‘ePLANETe’ website.

Pictures:

File Name Caption for picture Photo Credit
Image icon European RCE Meeting 2018_RCE Paris Seine I.jpg (2.51 MB) Motiti Island snorkeling on a calm winter morning – July 2018 Martin O’Connor
Image icon European RCE Meeting 2018_RCE Paris Seine II.jpg (3.24 MB) Seabirds feeding offshore at Motiti Island – July 2018 Martin O’Connor
Image icon European RCE Meeting 2018_RCE Paris Seine III.jpg (2.94 MB) Winter sunset in the Bay of Plenty (Aotearoa/Nez Zealand) Martin O’Connor
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
(https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs) and other themes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
SDG 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages 
Indirect
SDG 14 - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development 
Direct
SDG 15 - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss 
Direct
SDG 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels 
Direct
Theme
Traditional Knowledge  
Direct
Ecotourism 
Indirect
Plants & Animals 
Direct
Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development – Priority Action Areas
Priority Action Area 1 - Advancing policy 
Indirect
Priority Action Area 3 - Building capacities of educators and trainers 
Indirect
Priority Action Area 5 - Accelerating sustainable solutions at local level 
Direct
Update: 
No