Policy briefing note. Enabling citizen choices about land use and the natural environment

Summary: Project experience across the UK provides an opportunity to learn how citizens and communities can bring together different forms of knowledge relating to landscape and nature. Long-term dialogue processes, designed with fairness and legitimacy in mind, have the potential to put people at the centre of decisions about land use and the natural environment. The current scientific interest in ecosystem services (benefits derived from the environment) provides a useful basis for enabling greater and more effective deliberation among citizens about the environment. While many of the actions are best addressed in partnership, there are some specific considerations for central and devolved government. This note summarises findings from a workshop hosted on 16th February 2011 by the Natural Capital Initiative and Sciencewise-ERC, which brought together 35 people with experience of initiating, running and evaluating public dialogue on land use and the natural environment.