Gouvernance participative par l’engagement citoyen à l’heure des changements climatiques

Abstract

The results presented in this text rise from participative research-actions carried out with three communities of the acadian littoral of New Brunswick on the East coast of Canada, between 2005 to 2009. The objective of this work was to coordinate the step of citizens, elected officials and agencies (governmental and installation) and in the decision-making surrounding the adoption of durable practices as regards adaptation vis-a-vis the problems of erosion and floods in the context of the climatic changes. More precisely, the authors accompanied using approach integrated the various actors and makers decision on a local, provincial and federal scale, while assuring a bond between the scientific knowledge and the vernacular knowledge. They are the communities of Pointe-du-Chêne, located in south-east of New Brunswick and in edge of the strait of Northumberland, of Le Goulet, located in the North-East of New Brunswick and on the coasts of the gulf of the St. Lawrence and finally, of Bayshore in the city of Bathurst, located in Baie des Chaleurs. The step developed by the researchers is organized in three times: 1) using semi-directed interviews we collected the data concerning the social representations of the inhabitants of the coastal zone about climate change, of the impacts and the adaptation ; 2) doing awareness of the actors via meetings of information and discussion with different stakeholders in the communities, to “coconstruct” the object of research and finally ;3) coordination of focus groups for the phase engagement of the communities which led “to coproduct” an action plan for the adaptation taking account of the diversity of the characteristics of the communities and the territories.

Keywords

• adaptation
• climate changes
• coconstruction
• community engagment
• coproduction
• erosion