A Civic Conversation About Public Lands

Summary

Community-based ecosystem management (CBEM) is being offered as an alternative to agency-based public land management. Its fundamental premise is connecting communities to public lands for the purpose of increasing ecosystem stewardship and community sustainability. For CBEM to appropriately serve the public interest, new social and institutional relationships will need to be formed, collaborative learning will need to occur, and capacities in community participation and ecological literacy will need to be developed. A new civic conversation about public lands is essential to these relationships, learning, and capacities. Community governance processes, which guide these collaborative and participatory activities, must correspondingly reflect the community-based nature of CBEM, while preserving the national interests in public land resources.     

Global Linkages to Community-Based Ecosystem Management in the United States

Abstract

Community-based ecosystem management (CBEM) in the United States is closely tied to global processes. Increasing and shifting international market demands for ecosystem products and services together with global trends in climate change and biodiversity loss have tangible impacts in communities in every region of the country. Meanwhile, community-based natural resource management efforts in other parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, have a longer history than in the United States. This history, and the tools and techniques developed elsewhere for community-based resource management, can help to inform North American advocates and practitioners of CBEM. This paper has four objectives. The first is to identify key global trends that affect communities in the United States. These trends include demand and supply relationships (especially of forest resources) and environmental changes that will shape economic and policy choices in coming decades. Second, the paper examines countervailing forces of globalization and decentralization. How are shifting patterns of governance and control around the world affecting the prospects for sustainable community-based resource management? Third, the paper seeks to understand migration as a growing feature of many communities. What challenges and opportunities does migration pose for sustainable resource management? Finally, the paper summarizes a few of the tools and techniques used internationally that might have relevance in the United States.     

Governance and Institutions

Abstract

The institutional and governance issues that facilitate or impede community-based ecosystem management are discussed. Community-based ecosystem management has a variety of institutional models that differ in purpose, history, scope of interest, and capabilities. Several governance issues face these institutions, including: the adequacy of existing laws and policies; the role of government and policy tools such as money, messages, and mandates; mechanisms for cross-jurisdictional management; the effects of organizational culture and resources in organizations such as agencies and science; and power-distribution concerns that have made community-based ecosystem management politically contentious. For each of these issues a vision is presented for enhancing the precepts of community-based ecosystem management to ensure that it serves traditionally underrepresented populations and embodies democratic principles of open public deliberation, inclusiveness, and social justice. A significant number of success stories and innovations in dealing with these issues are documented as are barriers and challenges. Recommendations for addressing these challenges are made. While community-based ecosystem management reflects the Jeffersonian spirit of direct democracy, it also depends on individual civility and cannot be separated from the political pull and tug and the checks and balances of a complex federal system of representative democracy. The ultimate opportunity and challenge for community-based ecosystem management is to explicitly recognize its political dimensions and to continually experiment and innovate in ways to improve American democracy as well as long-term ecological sustainability.     

佛坪保护区社区共管的现状、问题与对策研究

摘要佛坪保护区社区社会经济状况落后。佛坪保护区对区内及周边社区没有行政管理职能。划定保护区边界、制定管理措施,并未改变社区对野生资源的依赖性。目前佛坪保护区的社区共管工作,仍局限于政策宣传,而且社区开拓意识差。解决上述问题,只有提高社区村民的文化素质,倡导科技兴农,变“输血型”经济为“造血型”经济。本研究试图找到切实可行的社区共管对策。本文提出了保护区与社区“利益共同体”,阐述了佛坪保护区社区共管现状和展望,对保护目标相近及社区经济状况相近的自然保护区具有参考借鉴作用。     

我国乡村森林旅游开发须破解农村土地集体所有制的法制困局

在森林资源丰富的乡村发展森林旅游,对于优化产业结构、协调城乡发展和解决“三农”问题具有战略意义,但不可避免地要牵扯到乡村森林旅游业的发展载体——农村土地制度问题。集体所有制是我国农村的基本土地制度,但是“集体”在政府行政权力消解下,并没有在实践层面取得法律的主体地位。在2008年我国集体林权改革后,一方面农民手里持有集体林权证书;另一方面,在森林旅游开发过程中,地方政府照样绕过集体所有直接征地。为此,在各级政府诉求以乡村旅游战略解决“三农”问题的当下,要强化和完善农村土地集体所有制中“集体”的法律主体性地位,从而提升农民（通过集体）参与乡村森林旅游产业发展进程中涉及林地权益关系的博弈能力,破解过去在国土规划与治理过程中出现的产业进步、现代化及城市化发展与农民致富、农村发展无关的困局。     

Restoring Landscapes—Governing Place: A Learning Approach to Forest Landscape Restoration

Forest landscape restoration is gaining ground, not least because of the role of forests in mitigating climate change. At present, pilot projects are initiated to generate “good practice” and “lessons learned” that can be scaled up to higher levels of policy making. However, landscape restoration is not new. People have always been constructing and restoring their landscapes to safeguard their livelihoods. A better understanding of existing local practice will help in identifying and implementing new restoration initiatives, and assure sustainable outcomes. Understanding local restoration practice means: (a) understanding how the biophysical conditions of landscapes are reshaped over time through the collective decisions of a landscape's inhabitants; and (b) understanding the governance mechanisms underlying these collective decisions. Thinking of governance from a landscape perspective adds a spatial dimension to governance as a means of reconnecting governance to landscape, citizenship to place. This offers the opportunity to cross administrative and political boundaries, allowing for broader groups of actors to engage in spatial decision making. Constructing networks across scales thus becomes an instrument for enhancing learning processes within and between landscapes and a means to scale up good forest landscape restoration practice for wider application at a global scale.     

The Great Lakes Forest Alliance

Summary

The Great Lakes Forest Alliance, created by charter in 1987 at the direction of the governors of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, is a mutual aid, public/private partnership that integrates global, national and local interests by bridging the gap at a regional level. It expanded in 1997 to include Ontario. Trustees include key leaders of government and industry and citizens from a broad range of forest interests. It was designed to be as learning environment to address the resurgence of forest growth and the increasing demand for conservation, wood products and recreation. The need for the Alliance resulted in part from a perceived underrepresentation of regional forest-related issues in the national arena. The Alliance attempts to consider leading-edge strategies over the long-term in a pro-active manner, and trustees recognize the need to build respect, trust, information exchange, cooperation, coordination and collaboration among diverse interests. Among the projects that demonstrate the bridge role played by the Alliance: a regional forest resources assessment, public and private funding that supports research toward a more frequent forest inventory process, training for communities to use the collaborative learning process to address economic prosperity and environmental protection strategies and the development of sustainable forest management criteria and indicators for the region. A continual challenge is relationships among diverse forest interests across jurisdictional and institutional boundaries in a manner that promotes exchanges that build collective wisdom.     

Effectiveness of Protected Area Governance in the Conservation of Mt. Marsabit Forest Ecosystem,Kenya

ABSTRACT

Protected area systems (PAs) have the potential to conserve natural resources and provide social and economic benefits to local communities. Establishing and maintaining good governance and associated mechanisms is necessary for adaptive management of PAs. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the relationships between various stakeholders and the effectiveness of PA governance of Mt. Marsabit forest ecosystem in Kenya. We used social network analysis (SNA) to assess the interactions between actors, and factor analysis to analyze the effectiveness of governance criteria. Governance of Mt. Marsabit forest ecosystem was complex with a multiplicity of stakeholders from diverse interests. Governance was moderately effective (61%) with positive indicators including the regulatory framework, delineation of areas under conservation, and reduction in poaching. The low level of interactions and associations among stakeholders suggest a weakness in the networks that may negatively affect the flow of information and other resources. This weakness was attributed to a lack of institutionalization of the links leading to poor coordination of processes. Local communities were inadequately represented in the governance of this PA despite being important actors. Our study finds that local ownership and strong linkages between actors are important ingredients for effective governance of PAs.     

Surviving the Transition

Summary

Community-based stewardship forestry (CBSF) on public lands in the United States is still a fledgling concept. Neither the number of projects completed nor the length of time that has passed since their initial implementation has been sufficient to draw definitive conclusions about the movement's success in improving economic, social, and environmental conditions in forest-dependent communities. What is of most concern now is whether the CBSF fledgling will have a chance to reach its full potential or will instead fall victim to organizational exhaustion, economic malnutrition, or political sniping. Experiences with stewardship collaboratives in northwest Montana have helped define 10 key factors CBSF groups must effectively address if they are to survive: (1) organizational burnout; (2) membership composition, expansion, diversification, and utilization; (3) change in organizational mission or focus; (4) financial viability; (5) responsiveness of federal decision makers to CBSF groups' legislative concerns; (6) continued skepticism among both industry and environmental communities; (7) movement from small demonstration projects to implementation on a larger scale; (8) need for procedural simplification; (9) outreach to the broader community; and (10) institutionalization of a meaningful role for communities in the natural resource policy making and management process. There are no simple solutions to these challenges, but the collective record of CBSF groups so far suggests a level of commitment and staying power sufficient to propel the fledgling through the transition and into full flight.     

Community-Based Ecosystem Monitoring

Abstract

Community-based ecosystem monitoring refers to a range of observation and measurement activities involving participation by community members and designed to learn about ecological and social factors affecting a community. This chapter presents observations from community-based ecosystem monitoring activities throughout the United States. It discusses factors leading to the emergence of community-based ecosystem monitoring, multiparty monitoring and its role in building social capital, the monitoring process, the integration of social and ecological factors, and ongoing challenges in community-based monitoring. Sidebars illustrate the chapter's central themes and lessons with examples from particular community monitoring initiatives. Community-based monitoring has been motivated by concern for special places, in response to perceived environmental threats, and as part of an effort to overcome longstanding conflict between diverse stakeholder groups. Multiparty monitoring has the potential to address each of these needs. Significant challenges include achieving effective, diverse community participation, integrating social indicators into ecosystem monitoring and analysis, identifying an appropriate level of rigor for specific monitoring objectives, and effectively integrating monitoring into an adaptive decisionmaking process.     

How financial compensation changes forest owners' willingness to set aside productive forest areas for nature conservation in Denmark

Abstract

Agri-environmental schemes' ability to increase the provision of environmental goods has been questioned because such schemes may pay landowners for something they would have done anyway. Contributing to this discussion, the aim of this paper is to investigate how financial compensation changes forest owners' declared willingness to set aside productive forest areas for nature conservation. The study is based on a survey of forest owner attitudes and ownership objectives in Denmark. First, it was analyzed how forest owners' declared willingness to set aside productive forest area for nature conservation changed when they were offered financial compensation. The majority of forest owners (64%) increased their willingness to set aside forest when offered financial compensation, whereas for others, compensation resulted in no change or, for a few respondents, even decreased the willingness. Hence, financial compensation may help to increase the provision of environmental goods but it is necessary to be aware of groups not motivated by financial incentives. Secondly, a binary logit model showed that the greatest likelihood of financial compensation increasing the motivation for setting aside forest is observed for owners who are young, female, live in the western part of Denmark and own farmland. Policy makers can use such information to target subsidy schemes at particular groups.     

A Working Definition of Sustainable Forestry and Means of Achieving It at Different Spatial Scales

Summary

Sustainable forestry can be a useful concept when it includes both spatial equity and the sustainable development concept of intergenerational equity. Using this definition and criteria such as those developed by the Montreal Process, each country can examine itself in a matrix to determine if it is overly protecting or exploiting its ecosystems according to the different criteria. Then, each country can examine the ecosystems within its country to determine if all are being equitably treated. For example, the United States appears sustainable when viewed as a whole; however, there are gross differences in ecosystem conditions within the country. Self-examination by each country of its contributions and voluntary actions to rectify its excesses and deficiencies will probably be more effective than a global policing system. Local, ground-specific actions can be taken to correct the imbalances within each ecosystem within a country. This paper illustrates that sustainable forestry can be considered and analyzed at different scales, and that even in countries where broad data sets indicate acceptable progress toward sustainable forestry, local data show the heterogeneous nature of this progress.     

Current pathways towards good forest governance for ecosystem services in the former Soviet republic Tajikistan

As one of the former Soviet republics, Tajikistan is facing a slow transition from a communist command-and-control system to a more market oriented, decentralized and participatory forestry. In the last 25 years, the country's forestry sector has undergone several reorganizations. In the process of a current reform, the overall aim of this study is to gain a broader understanding of the current state of forest sector in Tajikistan. Our specific objectives are a) to describe the current institutional network's complexity, (b) to analyze stakeholders' perceptions on the key challenges towards good forest governance, (c) and give recommendations to tackle the key challenges, so that important forest ecosystem services (ES) may be enhanced, thus, also contribute to the development of the sector. We elaborate a generic framework, which simplifies complex interaction of governance and forests ecosystem services. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaire-based interviews with stakeholders of the forestry sector. The results indicate that the forestry sector is still far from representing good forest governance, however the newly established structure seems to be a first step. Yet, challenges in establishing sound legal frameworks, decision-making transparency, and implementation enforcement must still be overcome. While it is too early and challenging to assess the impacts of forest governance on ES and vice versa, the survey respondents highlight the importance of provisioning services for the development of the forest sector. Given the post-Soviet background, almost all member countries developed along similar lines. Therefore, the study results are not only of significance for Tajikistan, but also countries with similar history and socio-economic context.     

Actor-centred power: The driving force in decentralised community based forest governance

Community forestry has been described as a decentralised mode of forest governance that only partly lives up to its expectations. The power of important actors to misuse the community forestry approach for their self-interests has been reported as a major obstacle to comprehensive success. Hence, this article aims at developing an analytical, theory-based and empirically applicable framework for assessing an actor's power using community forestry as an illustrative case. The actor-centred power approach (ACP) analysis aims to provide a scientific answer to the question of who are the politically most powerful actors in community forestry practices. In making use of suitable components of power theories it builds strongly upon the social relations of actors, organisational aspects and power sources, as described by Weber, Dahl, Etzioni and their adherents. Actor-centred power approach (ACP) is defined as a social relationship in which actor A alters the behaviour of actor B without recognising B's will. In our framework we distinguish between three core elements: coercion, (dis-)incentives and dominant information. These make up the basis for observable facts that involve not only physical actions but also threats by power elements and the very sources of said power elements. Theoretical considerations show that, despite the focus being on actors, by looking to their power sources a considerable part of structural power can be more tangible at least in part, like rules, discourse or ideologies. Furthermore, the paper shows how the actor-centred power approach distinguishes power from other influences on forest management and contributes to the identification of the group of powerful actors on an empirical basis. Due to the focus on actors and well-defined and observable elements of power, the actor-centred power approach (ACP) could serve not only as a basis for research but also as a tool for quick assessment of power networks, delivering valuable preliminary information for designing forest policy in practice.     

Do forest policy actors learn through forward-thinking? Conflict and cooperation relating to the past,present and futures of sustainable forest management in Germany

Collaborative participatory policy approaches based on foresight methodology have recently been proposed as promising governance tools to achieve sustainability in general, and address and manage challenges of integrating competing demands on forest land use (e.g., timber production, nature protection, recreation) in particular. Their main argument is that participatory processes will bring policy actors together. Based on long- and short-term future-oriented thinking and actions, they will overcome their previous value-laden and interest-based conflicts through informed communication, deliberation, policy learning and mutual cooperation. But do policy actors learn when they are thinking, debating and shaping the ‘forest futures’ they want to achieve or avoid? To what extent are current beliefs, values, worldviews, and conflict structures projected onto the future? What are their impacts on policy learning today?This paper addresses these research questions from a knowledge-based perspective of relevant policy learning theories. We trace changes and stability in beliefs, values (perception) and behavior (cooperation/conflict) among the involved policy actors. We assess to what extent future-oriented thinking and discussions contribute to, or inhibit, policy learning today.Empirically, the paper is informed by three case studies of regional ‘forest futures’ processes in Germany. They include forest landscapes in Upper Palatinate and South of Munich in Bavaria, and the Black Forest National Park in Baden-Württemberg. They represent different cases in terms of levels of stakeholder conflicts, integrative/segregative forest land use approaches, and the rural/urban divide. The paper is based on a qualitative analysis of interviews and documents about past and future forest land use, and observation of participatory scenario-building and back-casting workshops during 2011–2014.In our analysis, we found that forest policy actors adhered to their pre-existing beliefs and remained divided in terms of present and future aspects of sustainable forest management. That is, we observed no substantial or only strategic policy learning among the involved policy actors. We explain these findings in terms of competing actors' belief systems and worldviews that lead to competing understandings and expectations of ‘forest futures’. We discuss our research against the theoretical propositions and in view of the state-of-the art. We draw conclusions relevant for scholars and policymakers interested in collaborative policy learning processes, and suggest possible topics for further research.     

Making Tropical Succession and Landscape Reforestation Successful

Forests are dynamic ecosystems, spatial mosaics of localized disturbances and regenerating vegetation. Following forest conversion to human land uses, expanding forest cover follows four different modes of reforestation: (a) spontaneous natural regeneration; (b) assisted natural regeneration; (c) agroforestry; and (d) commercial tree plantations. Natural regeneration fundamentally depends on the alignment of ecological and social factors at landscape scales. A deeper socioecological understanding of reforestation in the tropics will lead to the development of effective policies and governance structures that enhance forest cover and ecosystem services, protect biodiversity, and improve forest-dependent livelihoods.     

Social Learning as a Basis for Cooperative Small-Scale Forest Management

This paper analyses the governance characteristics of an innovative policy instrument for sustainable forest management in Flanders, namely a mechanism based on social learning and collaborative planning within joint forest management organizations. These organizations have been successful in involving non-industrial private forest owners in managing the transition towards sustainable management in small-scale forestry. Why was this innovative scheme successful? And what are its shortcomings and possible limitations? The hypothesis developed in this paper is that the success of the forest groups has been made possible by the explicit organization of a process of social learning, leading to change in the beliefs and the social norms of forest owners and users. Based on the analysis of this case of cooperative forestry, and on theoretical insights from governance theory, the contribution to fostering social learning from three distinct mechanisms is established, these being (1) the recourse to sustainability criteria and indicators as an open-ended learning device, (2) the experimentation with disruptive action strategies to put new beliefs into practice, and (3) the building of new forms of social cooperation around these new beliefs and practices.     

Consumer perceptions of environmental and social sustainability of wood products in the Finnish market

Abstract

Consumers in today's world can perceive an additional benefit associated with responsible business practices and the sustainability of purchased products. However, in Scandinavian context, there is a lack of knowledge of consumer perceptions toward environmental and social sustainability of wood products. Our data on adult Finnish consumers (private end-users) (N=227) were collected during 2004–2007 as interview exit data from home retail centers selling building materials. The perceived environmental and social sustainability of wood products was investigated using exploratory factor analysis, and the phenomenon was observed to be a two-dimensional construct consisting of “General environmental and social sustainability” and “Specific social sustainability” reflecting strong consumer need for product safety. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the “General” dimension also explains the consumer's self-declared willingness to pay for sustainable wood products. The results also indicate that the respondents may be segmented based on their perceptions on product level environmental and social sustainability: the most environmentally and socially conscious group can be profiled by gender (female), older age, and summer cottage ownership.     

Emerging Markets for Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Four main areas of learning were pursued during this exploration of die emerging markets for ecosystem services. First, die markets in Panama are dominated by the Panama Canal Authority and by timber revenues. Any strategy for expanding ecosystem services markets will have to reflect diese realities. Second, while the scientific and business components of die framework we used to analyze diese markets covered all the key points, more work needs to be done on die policy component. Articulating a simple, yet effective approach for developing policy recommendations to improve ecosystem services markets in context remains a key need. Third, valuable lessons were learned about ensuring tiiat the students capture die maximum benefits from an international, clinically-based field trip. Finally, interdisciplinary teaching/ research benefits dramatically from botii a focus on a single problem and recognition that the key challenge is turning complex scientific knowledge into accessible, good advice.     

Attitudes Toward Joint Forest Planning Among Private Landowners

Abstract

On fragmented forest lands, ecosystem or landscape management approaches must cut across multiple ownerships. Therefore, communication and joint planning between neighboring landowners may be necessary for successful implementation of ecosystem management. This study examines landowners' interest in, and attitude toward, ecosystem management. Specifically, we use a survey and logistic regression model to explain landowner interest in joint planning as a proxy for their interest in ecosystem management. Survey results show that almost 70% of the landowners are interested in joint planning. However, most landowners require certain conditions be met before they would participate. Variables pertaining to attitudes and beliefs about ecosystem management or property rights, and receiving incentives for cooperation across the landscape are more important than demographic, land management, or spatial characteristics in explaining landowners' interest in joint planning. Landowners who believe in managing forests for environmental, wildlife and water quality as well as timber are more likely to be interested. The primary concern of those interested in joint planning is the impact it may have on their timber and/or land values. Planners who develop ecosystem management approaches that involve landowner cooperation should make the environmental impacts and benefits clear, and ensure that it will not reduce land and timber values.