Interagency collaboration for environmental education: insights from the Beaver Hills Biosphere, Canada

Abstract

Environmental education and collaboration are key tools used by biosphere regions/reserves to encourage a harmonious relationship between people and the land. The goal of this paper is to examine collaboration among organizations offering environmental education within the Beaver Hills Biosphere of Alberta, Canada. Based on analyses of 23 semi-structured interviews with environmental educators and planners, we describe current mechanisms of collaboration, benefits and drawbacks, enablers and barriers, and future recommendations in the context of collective impact theory. These findings highlight the principles and importance of interagency collaboration throughout all stages of offering environmental education, from creation and leadership, to delivery and evaluation.

Keywords:

• barriers
• benefits
• collaboration
• drawbacks
• enablers

Acknowledgements

We thank E. Halpenny and J. Parkins for reviewing earlier versions of this manuscript, B. Ilnicki for administrative support, and all respondents for their willingness to be interviewed.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Mitacs Accelerate and the Beaver Hills Biosphere under grant number IT15372.