ABSTRACT
Local Agenda 21 invites contradictory interpretations. It can be argued that it has made a real contribution to the objectives of sustainable development by encouraging numerous worthwhile initiatives and changes. Alternatively, it may be seen as a weak apology for lack of official commitment, a misleading distraction and a substitute for necessary action. We may value LA21 as a sustainability flagship that has helped the process of environmental education and achieved much through mass participation, voluntary effort and the leading work of charities and local authorities, or dismiss it as a haphazard jumble of under-funded, often ineffective, substitutes for real environmental policy, regulation where it matters and genuine local ownership of community initiatives. Our discussion in this chapter gives particular attention to recent events in Wales, and to the criticism that LA21 is little more than politically expedient rhetoric. We question the leading role of local authorities, and explore some of the challenges, difficulties and achievements of growing official reliance on work contracted out to NGOs, and often carried out by unpaid or trainee volunteers.
