Exploring the current status of water governance and outcomes of community-based monitoring across the Oak Ridges Moraine, Southern Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT

Community-based monitoring (CBM) activities are becoming increasingly prevalent in response to multiple factors, including reduced governmental capacity and increased public interest in environmental management. This research aims to explore how CBM has evolved in the Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM), southern Ontario, including an examination of strengths and challenges. Interviews with CBM stakeholders, provincial government staff, and conservation authority staff were combined with document analysis to explore the evolution and outcomes of ORM CBM activities. Results indicate that there is active CBM on the ORM and conservation authorities play a role in the shaping of CBM activities, although significant barriers remain to civil society participation in water governance. The case study results from the ORM were also considered in light of research emerging from the Nova Scotia experience of numerous civil society organisations involved in CBM.

KEYWORDS:

• Community-based monitoring
• Oak Ridges Moraine
• Ontario
• conservation authorities
• water

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as part of a “Community-University Research Alliance” under grant number SSHRC-CURA #833-2010-1006, led by Dr. Cathy Conrad out of Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia to explore CBM within and outside Canada. Thank you to the anonymous reviewers for improving this work. Thank you to the CA staff, NGO staff, government agency staff, and CBM volunteers that participated in the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through a Community University Research Alliance (CURA) under [grant number SSHRC-CURA #833-2010-1006].