Project Overview

National planning initiatives such as the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and the National Environmental Performance Partnership System have laid the foundation for improving planning and management of environmental programs by focusing attention on environmental results, elevating the importance of planning, and highlighting the need for meaningful stakeholder participation and positive intergovernmental relationships. A strong planning system is fundamental in keeping attention focused on important goals and concerns. Higher demands for closer intergovernmental cooperation, greater legislative scrutiny, demands for more public accountability, and tighter, more competitive budgets have compelled states and tribes to improve their management systems, particularly planning. Fundamental to the functioning of effective planning programs is the ability to measure mission-based results. Without such measurement strategic goals cannot be set, accomplishments cannot be documented, and programs cannot be adaptively managed.

The Program for Environmental Policy and Planning Systems (PEPPS) at the Florida State University entered into a cooperative agreement with the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) of the EPA to lead a stakeholder process to develop a national set of environmental indicators that can be used by states, tribes and non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the EPA to describe and understand environmental trends and conditions associated with chemical and pesticide issues.

For the past year, an external workgroup of representatives from state governments and the private sector has, with the support of CAPRM project staff and an internal OPPTS workgroup, identified strategic issues relating to chemicals and pesticides and provided oversight of the development of 74 indicators. Meeting in February, June and September of 2000, the workgroup undertook the following tasks:

• The identification of a structure of strategic issues that reflect the major concerns that OPPTS will face over the next 20 years.
• The elaboration of each of these strategic issues into a suite of sub-issues that collectively define their major components.
• The preliminary identification of the types of indicators that should be used to measure each of the sub-issues.
• The provision of guidance to staff concerning available data sources capable of supporting indicators.
• The recommendation of a final set of environmental indicators.
• The coordination of the CAPRM process with other relevant indicator efforts.

Project Phases

As of February 2001, the first phase of the CAPRM project is complete. The final document, as well as an executive summary, have been published. They are also available for viewing and downloading on this website (click here).  Currently, PEPPS staff is marketing and distributing the CAPRM document to a variety of external audiences, including: state agricultural agencies, state environmental agencies, trade associations, chemical and pesticide manufacturers, tribal organizations, non-profit organizations and public interest groups.

PEPPS recently extended its cooperative agreement with OPPTS for an18-month second phase of CAPRM. This second phase will comprise an evaluation, update and expansion of the indicator system developed in the first phase of CAPRM. For more information about the next phase of CAPRM, click here.

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