Ystad:
Ecological cycles - Town and countryside in partnership
Ystad:
| |
| Country: | a) Northern Europe | ,b) Sweden |
| Language: | |
| Type: | Project, Policy, 1 |
| Area: | Rur/area/Village, 20,000-100,000 |
| Actors: | Local government, National government, Economic sector |
| Funding: | Local government, National government |
| Topics: | Air-quality |
| Environmental education | |
| Renewable resources | |
| Sewage and waste water | |
| Solid waste | |
| Water | |
| Objectives: | Improve access to information |
| Improve environmental efficiency | |
| Improve intersectoral cooperation | |
| Increase bio-diversity | |
| Increase green areas | |
| Increase public awareness | |
| Increase use of renewable resources | |
| Reduce resource consumption | |
| Waste recycling | |
| Instruments: | Eco audit / Environm. Impact Assessment |
| Integrated planning approach | |
| Local government structure / organisation | |
| Public participation |
The Ecocycles project of the Swedish Municipality of Ystad is a project that aims at re- establishing natural cycles of land and resource use between the municipality's towns and their hinterland. Designed in part as a research project, it combines the advantages of theoretical general knowledge of environmental interrelations with the practical knowledge emanating from a local context. Proposals drawn from the detailed analyses of the environmental situation serve as the basis for the municipality's activities today.
The Muncipality of Ystad has based many of its activities in the direct involvement of the local population. They are seen as an important strategic element in the attempt to deal with environmental problems. The aim is to raise the general level of environmental awareness and willingness to enter a process of behavioural change.
The project in Ystad is an examplary initiative for several reasons:
Over the last decades, modern technology and centralized production methods have dramatically changed the exchange patterns of towns and their immediate hinterland. Related structural changes of society and economic markets have severed the traditional links between towns and their surrounding farmland as mutual providers of resources and goods. For instance, farmers no longer grow a variety of produce for the local markets but only a few mass products for a centralized and increasingly volatile (inter)national market. As a consequence, goods and food products today are generally transported long distances from large and centralized treatment and production centres, causing environmental pollution and a significant loss in the quality of produce. Another example is the technically sophisticated and centralized treatment of waste and sewage, which prevents the utilization of parts of the waste and water close to the source as resources in farming or for the production of bio-energy.
One consequence of this development is the increased dependence of localities on distant providers of goods such as energy and food and services like waste treatment. Furthermore, local political processes have become increasingly dependent on distant decision-makers generally inaccessible for and unresponsive to local concerns such as local employment or demands for a healthy natural environment. Another result is the loss or loosening of social ties between rural and urban areas as well as a general lack of awareness of the environmental effects of everyday life activities. On the whole, these processes have been counterproductive to the sustainable development of regions.
In view of this situation, the Ystad project is guided by two principal ideas: first, the conviction that spatial - as opposed to non-spatial - environmental problems should be dealt with directly at the local level. Environmental problems such as waste and water treatment, or land use and the production of agricultural goods, are closely related to the specific local and natural conditions, and therefore, in this view, should be approached and solved by decentralized, local solutions. Second, the Ystad project is based on the conviction that a meaningful attempt for more sustainable development must involve as large a part of the citizenry as possible to facilitate increasing environmental awareness and practical behavioural changes. The local people must be given responsibility and influence in drawing up and implementing individual projects and thus be enabled to integrate these activities into their everyday lives.
With these ideas in mind, the Ystad Ecocycles Project aims at establishing natural cycles of resource and product flows between the urban and rural areas within the Ystad municipal district. These cycles are to contribute to the local provision of food, energy and material and are to recycle urban refuse to the farmland at the same time as the natural environment in the urban areas and the farmland are improved. Ultimately, more sustainable development is to be obtained.
From an organisational point of view, the Ecological Cycles Project poses a great challenge to traditional administrative management. In the course of the project, the problem-specific, compartmentalized and technically-oriented approach to environmental problem solving might have to be adapted to encompass a more communicative, holistic, process-directed manner of decision making. Thus, one important aim is to find out how municipal planning processes are affected by projects such as the Ecological Cylces Project and possibly to develop new, integrative and responsive procedures and structures.
The Ystad Ecological Cycles Project is also to be seen as an attempt to establish a dialogue between university researchers working in a theoretical manner on solutions for local problems and the local people confronted with them on a practical, everyday level. Through the work on the sub-projects, scientific expertise and general technical knowledge was carried into the locality and a productive exchange of experiences and knowledge was fostered. Therefore, as another goal the attempt to establish steady communication processes threads through the entire project. The hope is ultimately to set off lasting changes in public opinion and people's awareness and to evoke a well-founded momentum for local activity and structural changes. In the long term, viable solutions evolving from the Ystad Ecological Cycles project are meant to serve as examples for other municipalities.
The Ecocycles project of Ystad was initiated by MOVIUM, the Centre for Urban Environment at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The scientific staff of MOVIUM provided the main conceptual input, coordinated the implementation process in the research phase, and summarized the sub-projects results.
After MOVIUM made initial contacts with the municipality of Ystad in 1990, the Municipal Council, concluding a controversial debate in Ystad, voted in 1991 to embark on the implementation of the project. The implementation process was devided in two phases: a first, research-centred phase, in which pilot studies on the five sub-project areas were conducted. It lasted from 1991-1994. The following phase of concrete application of the devised measures is carried on until today.
The first phase was centered around two main elements. One element was a broad information campaign which was raised by the newly founded environmental delegation of Ystad Municipality. In its course, private households, schools, and various types of local organisations of the whole region were informed directly and through the local press of the general idea of the project. The people of the region were invited to take an active part in the individual sub-projects. For this campaign, support was also acquired from a large Swedish Public Housing association, HSB, which disseminated information to its tenant-owner associations and facilitated the build-up of local 'natural-cycle' groups.
Most prominent in the information effort was the educational programme initiated at the local schools. Regarded as the most important link in the chain of change and communication, school children were chosen as a main target group for environmental programmes. To establish this link they have not only been offered information and facts but have been involved in a hands-on manner in 'natural-cycle workshops', e.g. planting in public areas and taking on responsibility for their care or learning how to separate waste and to start a compost heap.
The pilot studies of the five sub-projects constitute the other main element in the first implementation phase. The work process leading to and through the different sub-projects proceeded according to the same basic steps: first, the most urgent environmental problems were sought out. Second, in each of the problem areas the current environmental situation was surveyed and mapped in great detail. The third step was to devise a viable strategy. A variety of proposals for three to eight-year projects to alleviate the problems were made. The work was guided by researchers and technical specialists of the various fields who were members of MOVIUM or specialists from independent research and consulting agencies. They worked in close cooperation with the municipal authorities, its administrative departments, the politicians and public board members (in total about 50 officials were actively involved) as well as with public organisations. As holders of knowledge of the local situation they provided the necessary contextual input on the basis of which for instance detailed flow charts and diagrams of resource and pollutant flows in the Ystad Municipality were drawn up and a complete picture of the environmental situation of Ystad was drawn.
The proposals suggesting steps for activities of the municipality formulated concrete projects and policy measures. For instance, they suggested reduction targets and practical measures like installing a biogas power plant at the municipal waste site but also soft policy measures like starting a campaign to induce the local retailers voluntarily to reduce packaging or to sign contracts directly with local farmers for the delivery of fresh produce.
Throughout the study process, the outside project management (i.e. MOVIUM and the other expert agencies) took on a consulting and directing role but did not interfere with the actual decision process within the municipality. At the same time, the attempt was made to delegate as much responsibility and decision making capacity as possible to the citizens, who mainly acted through various public associations and organisations. One consequence was that the process by far exceeded the time frame of one year initially allowed for it.
After completion of the study phase of the Ecocycles Project, execution of the strategies suggested lies in the hands of the municipal government and the citizens of Ystad. Currently, activities focus on reestablishing a park-like area around the entire town of Ystad as a natural habitat and ecologically diverse resource for wild species and people alike. As part of the project, streams and water courses are re-naturated. Another important project area is the treatment of (industrial) waste water and the separate treatment of biodegradable wastes, and educational programmes at the schools continue to be a major focus of activity.
Until conclusion of the study phase in 1993 about 500 citizens from the town of Ystad and the surrounding settlements in the municipality had been actively involved in the various project areas. Thus, on the whole, the project managed to arouse a great amount of interest and practical activity among the population.
There has been some dissatisfaction among citizens who were disappointed at the lengthy implementation process and the few visible results. However, this should be regarded as the consequence of choosing a strategy that tries to follow a 'bottom-up' as opposed to a 'top-down' method of developing new approaches to public decision making and problem solving. Having put the emphasis of the project on changing basic political processes and habituated ways of thinking necessarily requires time and patience before results become visible.
Therefore, many of those involved, especially within the municipal government, are more positive in their judgement. They stress that a learning process has been set off. Slowly a new way of thinking among public officials and a large section of the population has been gaining ground which tries to integrate ecological and environmental aspects and takes a more holistic viewpoint of issues. In their view, this has been the most important impact of the Ystad Ecological Cycles Project so far.
But there have also been more quantifiable results of the project which were achieved through analysing the environmental situation in Ystad Municipality. As a result, each sub-project came forward with a list of proposals which often could point out simple measures with potentially great effects. As an example, the detailed flow charts showed that by treating the waste water of just a few large polluters, pollution rates could be reduced by 50%. Similar revelations were drawn from the mapping of organic waste flows. Of these wastes 50% could easily be composted until the year 2000 if only the biggest producers (hospitals, food industry, etc) were acted upon. But this example also shows that implementing the proposed strategies through concrete policies of the Ystad Municipaliy proved to be not as easy. In the official plan for municipal handling of organic waste, the reduction goals were set at only 5% by 2000 (which, nevertheless, had already been exceeded by 1996).
From the perspective of the scientists of MOVIUM the project was a success. The application of their general knowledge to a concrete local environmental context provided them with important experiences and insights for further research. Furthermore, an evaluation done on the attitudinal changes effected within the municipality suggests that the newly acquired environmental awareness and the people's understanding of interrelations and ecocycles has been deeply internalized even in the short time period since the beginning of the project in 1991.
The costs of running the sub-projects in the initial pilot phase from 1991-1994 were calculated at US$ 250,000. They were covered by the Swedish Government, through the Agricultural University (40%), Ystad Municipality and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities (30% each). This included outlays for the municipality's information and education programme, for which Ystad Environmental Department's budget was stocked up by 275,000 SKr until 1993.
Costs for personnel of Ystad municipality involved in the first phase was not covered by this amount but financed by the municipality.
Costs of implementing the projects in the second phase also have to be borne by the municipality's budget. Since 1993, the municipality has designated SKr 2 mio per year for this purpose.
Bucht, Eivor / Bengt Persson 1995: Ystad och land i samverkan, Stad & Land nr 128, MOVIUM and Svenska Kommunförbundet.
Granvik, Madeleine / Westman, Bengt 1996: Ecological Cycles in Ystad, in: Swedish Association of Local Authorities, Mini Report on the Environment and Natural Resources in Physical Planning, May, p. 5.
Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources 1992, Ystad - city and countryside in co- operation, in: Ecocycles. The Basis of Sustainable Urban Development, A Report from the Environmental Advisory Council (Jo 1968:A) (ed. Tommy Mansson), Stockholm, p. 71
Ystad Kommun 1992: Ystad, Town and countryside in partnership - towards sustainable development of towns and the rejuvenation of rural life, (text and idea: Eivor Bucht and Bengt Persson)
| Name | : | Orup |
| Firstname | : | Peter |
| Telefon | : | +46 411 771 09 |
| Telefax | : | +46 411 729 68 |
| Address | : | Director of Development |
| Municipality of Ystad | ||
| Nya Radhuset, | ||
| S-271 80 Ystad | ||
The municipality of Ystad is situated in the most southern part of Sweden and has about 25,000 inhabitants. 15,000 of these live in the town of Ystad, making it an average size town in Sweden. The remaining 10,000 people live in several smaller towns and villages and on the countryside. Due to its temperate climate, the district is a popular centre for tourism and much of it is agriculturally used; it consists of 70% agricultural land and 25% forests and lakes. Employment is mainly in the public sector (38%) and industry (21%). Other important sectors are manufacturing and trade (12% each). Farming provides 9% of employment.
Project was added at 23.04.1997
Project was changed at 12.08.1997