Published on 23 October 2024
Michelle Twena (Project Lead) – National Trust
David Bavin – National Trust
Clare Bissell – National Trust
Matthew Heard – National Trust
Sarah Crowley – University of Exeter
ExCASES Missions provide short, intense periods of focus towards issues that have been communicated as priorities for RENEW partner organisations and external stakeholders. The ExCASES team work collaboratively with people across different sectors and disciplines, co-designing research and participatory processes to generate empowering outcomes for people and the environment.
This project investigates how we can use learning from the People’s Plan for Nature – and other innovative deliberative and participatory public engagement processes – to embed democratic cultures within the nature sector, to support more inclusive and effective decision-making, and positive outcomes for biodiversity renewal.
Our research employs a process of co-design, using interviews and workshops, to:
The ongoing nature and climate crises demand inclusive, rapid and novel solutions. Yet there is an increasing awareness that without incorporating a broader range of voices in decision-making processes, we are unlikely to unlock the transformative pathways necessary to address these ‘wicked’ problems of our time. Deliberative public engagement initiatives have been proposed as a way of addressing this need by creating popular mandates for change, increasing participation in decision-making, enhancing civic education, and generating innovative solutions, due to their potential to build agency and capacity within instigating agencies, the public, and beyond. In doing so, they hold the promise of improving the quality, legitimacy and feasibility of environmental outcomes.
The People’s Plan for Nature represents an example of one such initiative. It centred on a national conversation and citizens’ assembly process, instigated by three environmental NGOs – the National Trust, RSPB and WWF – to include a diverse range of voices in the public debate on the future of nature. What is less-well known about deliberative processes such as these, however, is the extent to which they are “legitimate, credible and useful” to those involved (Sandover, 2021).
This mission responds to these questions by exploring lessons from the People’s Plan for Nature, and other innovative public engagement exercises, by taking a systemic approach to deliberative democracy. The advantage of this perspective is that it explores the interconnections between the process itself and other actors, institutions and processes, which allows us to take a more holistic view of whether and how individual exercises in democratic innovation can set in motion a lasting cascade of deliberative cultures, systems, and practices.
In order to learn more about the experiences, awareness and perceptions of the process a year after its 24 ’Calls to Action’ were published (in March 2023), Dr Michelle Twena will be interviewing the People’s Plan for Nature’s core commissioning team, along with others involved in the process, such as Assembly Citizens, speakers and on-call experts; representatives from the environment sector; academics and experts in participatory and deliberative processes; legal, policy and inclusion specialists; national and local government representatives; and community engagement and participation practitioners.
The team will also be conducting (one or more) participatory workshops to create an opportunity for collective reflection about the process, and to help identify key lessons together, with a specific emphasis on highlighting, sharing and amplifying good practice for improving and embedding inclusion in the sector.
This work is ongoing. To find out more, or to contribute ideas for future missions, email the team excases@nationaltrust.org.uk
Banner image: Veliko Karachiviev. Unsplash
