Environmental activism and advocacy: complementary relationships with environmental management, policy and science

In recent weeks, there have been two key events in Australia of interest to environmental managers: release of the five-yearly State of the Environment report (Australian Government 2022), and the passing of the climate bill. Among the stand-out points of the SoE report are that this is the first time the report has been co-authored by Indigenous people, reflects Indigenous dimensions and advocates for genuine inclusion of Indigenous philosophy, practice, rights and management mechanisms in Australia’s future management. Another key point is that Australia lacks any framework for holistic environmental management, despite patchwork attempts in particular sectors such as integrated catchment management and coastal zone management. Among much other excellent summary information and reflection on progress or otherwise, the report notes Australia’s challenges in managing pressures on the environment, and the key role of global action to reduce carbon emissions in addressing the pressures. Meanwhile, the newly elected Australian government’s climate bill has passed both houses of Parliament, meaning that a 43 percent emission reduction target by 2030 and a goal of net zero emissions by 2050 will become law. In the environmental management profession, we tend to focus on management, policy and science, with perhaps less consciousness of the roles of environmental activism and advocacy in influencing the democratic processes that lead directly and indirectly to vital outcomes for environment, society and often economy. Yet if we reflect on a few decades of history, combinations of environmental activism and advocacy have played crucial roles in saving the Great Barrier Reef, significant areas of South West Tasmania’s forests and rivers, K’Gari-Fraser Island, Aotearoa-New Zealand’s Fiordlands and many other locations. Campaigns have changed public and political thinking towards forests, wild rivers, and particular mines and mining practices. Individuals such as the late John Sinclair (campaigner for K’Gari) and Judith Wright (among many campaigners for the Great Barrier Reef) come to mind, within and alongside major campaigns and social movements involving multiple organisations and interests. There is a subtle distinction, yet much overlap, between activism and advocacy. While the public image of activism (fostered by the press) is of direct action such as people chaining themselves to bulldozers and often clever media stunts, it is defined much more broadly, as ‘action on behalf of a cause,... that goes beyond what is conventional and routine’ (Martin 2007, 19). Martin describes activists as challenging, trying to achieve social (and environmental) goals rather than seeking power for themselves. Activism is directed at many diverse issues, and initiated at different levels of society. Advocacy, meanwhile, involves ‘systematic efforts (as opposed to sporadic outbursts) by actors that seek to further specific policy goals’ (Prakash and Gugerty 2010, 1). Prakash and Gugerty go on to explain that advocacy is integral to politics, not restricted to any particular policy domain, and that the targets can be governments, businesses or other advocacy