Roles of environmental movement organisations in land-use planning: case studies of the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The paper explores the roles of environmental movement organisations (EMOs) in land-use planning, including domain creation (establishment of new or modified landscape planning boundaries) and regime change (adoption of new or modified legal and planning rules). The research involved two case studies of land-use planning processes: the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada. The two cases together reveal an evolution of land-use planning towards collaborative processes on mainly private lands in Southern Ontario during the period from 1960 to 2002. The results suggest that EMOs can create new planning domains through agenda setting activities, build landscape value and vision, educate governments and the public, and work to maintain and alter regimes. Collaborative planning has emerged as an important process in which some EMOs are now participating.

Keywords:

• environmental movement
• land-use planning
• Niagara Escarpment
• Oak Ridges Moraine
• NGO
• law
• policy

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that strengthened the paper, Dr James Hamilton for preparing Figure 1, and they recognise funding support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.