Tending Nature, 2024 Fostering Eco-Citizenship in the Americas

This book aims to contribute to the understanding of the building blocks and ethics of citizen involvement in environmental conservation by studying successful cases of shared environmental governance in the Americas, and to inform policy-making about behavioral change induction and the steps towards co-management of public national resources and THE COMMONS. The cases are analyzed from a geographical perspective to provide a framework to rethink eco-citizenship according to principles based on bioregionalism, a perspective that parts from viewing eco-citizenship as a global culture, and pleads for its re-embedding in the shared lived spaces of groups of citizens. 

Readers will learn how to WORK TOWARDS Nature-Human reconciliation with multi-stakeholders as protagonists of GREEN/BLUE/BEE INITIATIVES, alongside community learning, ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS RISING and citizen participation, to enrich the decision-making process and Establish environmental justice FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS. The case studies presented in this book, selected from Brazil, Canada, COLOMBIA, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States, show some of the most progressive innovations in the Americas in terms of Green/BLUE/BEE planning IN URBAN, PERIURBAN AND RURAL AREAS. THESE PROPOSALS FOR TENDING NATURE AROUND US WITH EMPATHY AND RESPECT INCLUDE CO-MANAGEMENT AND NETWORKING METHODS TO CARRY ON PROXIMITY URBAN GARDENING, WILD BEE CONSERVATION, WATER SOURCE PROTECTION, COMMUNITY-BASED WATER MANAGEMENT, RIVER REAPPROPRIATION, AND METROPOLITAN AIR QUALITY AND GREEN SPACES MANAGEMENT.

The book will be of interest to students, urban and RURAL planners, researchers, academics, networking professionals, Decision-makers, international development volunteers, activists in environmental organizations AND CURIOUS CITIZENS.

Chapter 1.- Environmental Citizenship: Preserving and Enhancing Nature Around Us. Chapter 2.- The Geography of Global Climate Change Action: An Overview of the Networks Buttressing Urban Adaptation and Ecosystem Resilience - Cases from Canada and the US. Chapter 3.- The Water Soft Path in Canada: A Knowledge-Building Network Perspective. Chapter 4.- River Revival in Maine, a Tale of Two Rivers and their People (Kennebec and Penobscot rivers). Chapter 5.- Mindful Naturescaping: Citizens’ Actions for Bee-friendly Cities. Chapter 6.- Urban Agriculture as a Way of Rewilding Urban Ecosystems. Chapter 7.- The Politics of Drought in the Brazilian Sertão and the Role of Civil Society in Shaping Perceptions about Semi-arid Lands. Chapter 8.- Forest Community Governance: The Experiments of the Model Forest of Reventazón, Costa Rica and of Certified Forestry of the Haida Nation, Vancouver Island. Chapter 9.- The Sao Paolo Green Belt: The Actors Behind  the Creation of the Urban Biosphere Reserve and the Challenges of its Maintenance. Chapter 10.- Building upon the Mexican Law for Water Conservation: Social Innovation in the Rio Salado Watershed Management (Puebla). Chapter 11.- The Gap between Citizens’ Actions and Public Policies. How to Move Environmental Citizenship Forward?.

Dr. Nathalie Gravel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at University of Laval, Quebec. Her research interests include rural and Latin American geography, environmental governance, and the geography of poverty and socio-economic inequalities.

Contribute to the theoretical reflection around the concept of ecological citizenship in the Americas Explores the strength of eco-networking action through the influence of environmental non-governmental actors Documents how community learning and improved participation can enrich the decision-making process