Mapping Welsh Environmental Stakeholders: Part 2

Since I last posted, the database has expanded to over 230 entries and will likely grow much further. I have been keeping track of this work with the help of a daily diary and this post is dedicated to the activities that I have undertaken over the past three weeks. My main focus has been the structure of organisations and I have compiled a mailing list with which I have emailed many actors to gather this information. When stakeholders do not respond I try to find this information myself.

Filling information gaps is done via Charities House and Companies House, as well as working through individual organisations’ websites and direct contact with them. When there are differences in the information I find about a stakeholder, I use the information given by the Charities and Companies House websites, unless a stakeholder contacts me themselves with this information. The number of categories by which we gauge the size of an organisation, as well as areas in which they operate has expanded to allow for more accurate detail. When information cannot be found at all and is not given by organisations there is little I can do, hence gaps are labelled as “Not Available”. I have also added their Twitter handles to enable future study of social media interactions and potential social networks that exist between stakeholders.

Chapter two of Elin Royles’ “Revitalizing Democracy” has clarified the history of civil society and defined it in a Welsh context. Recent literature by Haydn Davies helped me understand the Well-Being Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the significance of the well-being duty it places on public bodies. I was also able to meet Matthew Quinn and after reading his work “Evidence Based or People Based Policy Making?: A View From Wales”, I have a better picture of the transparency practices of local authorities. Speeches given by him and John Griffiths, Minister for Environmental and Sustainable Development, in the early 2010s highlight the importance of the ecosystems approach rather than the more traditional conservationist approach to the environment. I will also be undertaking some reading on business engagement in Wales.

In the final two weeks of my placement I will be focused on wrapping up the work. I intend to finish a summary of the literature reviewed and finalize the database. Many stakeholders still have missing information, which I must try to fill, as well as making sure that all functions work as intended. My reading list has many entries left and I will be working through them and as the Brexit negotiations now also involve Agriculture it will be interesting to follow how events develop over the coming weeks. There will also be a CUROP poster exhibition on the 4^th of October, which I will prepare for.

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