strategy

Establishing local monitoring group

Implementation:
In 1993 Friends of the Earth Scotland began a scheme to train activists in Scotland to examine and interpret information about air polluting industries held on public registers by local authorities. Examining the registers revealed that many of Scotland's hospital incinerators are operating below standards. This information was subsequently used to close down one incinerator which was emitting high levels of hydrogen chloride.

In 1996 a survey was published of community-based environmental monitoring programmes in Australia. It lists more than 200 community groups from around the country who are monitoring everything from echidnas, frogs and mallee fowl to roadsides, cavbves, arid lands, estauaries and coasts. For example, in farmlands such things as salinity, nutrient runoff, soil health and weed invasions are bing monitored.

Broader:
Taking local environmental action
Developing local conservation groups
Instigating community resources management
Undertaking environmental monitoring and assessments
Narrower:
Surveying community needs
Facilitates:
Conserving nature communally
Ensuring a healthy environment
Producing environmental resource inventories
Values:
Nonlocal
References:
Australian Conservation Foundation: Listening to the Land: a directory of community environmental monitoring groups in Australia
Subjects:
Society → Local
Research, Standards → Inspection, tests
Type Classification:
F: Exceptional strategies