scholarly journals Enhancing public participation in state forest management: a user council survey

2000 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.E. Boon
2010 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 697-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
H W Harshaw

Conceptions and challenges of public participation in British Columbia are reviewed to identify those characteristicsof planning processes that serve to benefit or constrain the interests and needs of public stakeholders. Perspectives onpublic participation, including representative and participatory democracies, and approaches to incorporating publicperspectives in decision-making (i.e., shared decision-making, consensus-building, and interest-based negotiation) arepresented to demonstrate the different approaches (and their benefits and challenges) available for providing opportunitiesfor public participation. Lessons from other natural resource management contexts are distilled and used to evaluatethe BC context. Three principal forest planning and management frameworks (the Commission on Resources and theEnvironment, Land and Resource Management Plans, and sustainable forest management certification) are examinedin light of whether meaningful opportunities for public participation were provided.Key words: public participation, British Columbia, Commission on Resources and the Environment, Land and ResourceManagement Plans, sustainable forest management certification


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 1515-1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen RJ Sheppard

There is an increasing demand for active public involvement in forestry decision making, but there are as yet few established models for achieving this in the new sustainable forest management (SFM) context. At the level of the working forest, the fields of forest sustainability assessment, public participation, decision support, and computer technology in spatial modelling and visualization need to be integrated. This paper presents the results of a literature review of public participation and decision-support methods, with emphasis on case study examples in participatory decision support. These suggest that emerging methods, such as public multicriteria analysis of alternative forest management scenarios and allied tools, may lend themselves to public processes addressing sustainability criteria and indicators. The paper develops a conceptual framework for participatory decision support to address the special needs of SFM in tactical planning at the landscape level. This framework consists of principles, process criteria, and preliminary guidelines for designing and evaluating SFM planning processes with community input. More well-documented studies are needed to develop comprehensive, engaging, open, and accountable processes that support informed decision making in forest management, and to strengthen guidance for managers.


2010 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 753-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Martineau-Delisle ◽  
Solange Nadeau

Public participation practices are now common and recognized as a way of including a broader range of interests andsocial values in forest management. However, we know little about their real benefits. This article presents the results of astudy aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the diverse impacts of public participation and, in particular, of forest-related deliberative forums (i.e. committee types of processes). The study is based on an analysis of data collected from137 respondents–participants and coordinators–who have been involved in more than 120 forest-related public participationprocesses in the province of Quebec. The study examined the diversity of potential impacts of public participationprocesses, assessed the significance of the impacts, and evaluated the capacity of existing processes to achieve them.Overall, the study provides practical information to support the evaluation of public participation processes, a requirementthat is increasingly imposed on forest practitioners and decision-makers.Key words: forest governance, forestry, outputs/outcomes, impacts of citizen involvement/public participation processes,stakeholder consultation, advisory committees, evaluation, performance measurement, criteria and indicators, sustainableforest management, Canada, Quebec


2010 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 730-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Wyatt ◽  
Jean-François Fortier ◽  
Catherine Martineau-Delisle

Aboriginal peoples in Canada present a special case of citizen involvement in forest governance, with rights and statusthat go beyond those of other stakeholders and individuals. Increasingly, participation processes aimed specifically atAboriginal representatives are being used to encourage their involvement in forest management. This article asks whatwould be the characteristics of a distinct process that could respond to Aboriginal rights, needs and expectations. We doso by combining the results of a broad Québec-wide study with those from a case study of forestry participation in a singlecommunity. A total of 68 consultation processes are analyzed. These experiences enable the identification of severalcharacteristics of consultation processes used for First Nations. We also note that distinct consultations typically reflectthe same practices that are used more generally for public participation in forestry, raising the question of whether or notthese consultations truly respond to Aboriginal rights, needs and expectations in Québec.Key words: Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal forestry, forest management, public participation mechanisms, duty to consult,Canada


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 1866-1872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Len M. Hunt

Effective public participation is a key part of sustainable forest management on publicly owned lands. However, long-term monitoring data that seek to measure effectiveness of public participation in forest management planning is lacking. Here, measures based on attitudes and satisfaction ratings associated with suspected criteria of public participation effectiveness were developed and applied to forest resource advisory group members from Ontario, Canada. Using data from four social surveys (2001, 2004, 2010, and 2014), advisory group members were, on average, satisfied and held positive attitudes towards the advisory group, their participation in the group, and forest management planning. In many instances, these positive evaluations increased from 2001 to 2014, especially for statements related to fairness. One concern about Local Citizens Committees (LCCs) related to their composition. Advisory group members were male dominated (about 88%) and were increasingly overrepresented by individuals between 50 and 69 years old in 2014 (67%). Given that male and female LCC members held different perceptions of the effectiveness of some public participation criteria, these concerns suggest that composition of LCCs might impair the ability of the groups to consider all viewpoints related to forest management planning. Finally, the research illustrates the importance of designing and collecting long-term monitoring data to understand how evaluations of public participation and composition of participants changes over time.


2007 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 672-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Tyler DesRoches

This paper explores the current status of public participation in BC forest management with the objective of finding ways to improve it at the policy level. Public participation is discussed in relation to features of deliberative democratic theory and then within the historical context of BC forest management. Recent public complaints concerning inadequate participatory opportunities received at the Forest Practices Board and the move to diminish the extent of public participation in land-use planning is discussed. This paper maintains that effective public participation should be a goal of public forest management and that a corresponding policy should be devised. Key words: public participation, forest management, legitimacy, British Columbia


2010 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 742-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Robson ◽  
Len M. Hunt

Ontario’s Local Citizens’ Committees (LCCs) are the oldest local multi-stakeholder platforms in forest management inCanada (since 1994) and one of the most researched. This paper is a meta-analysis of LCC research from large-scale surveys,document analysis of audits and case study interviews of members from two LCCs. Multi-stakeholder Platforms areexpected to lead to better and more acceptable decisions than traditional approaches because they involve multiple stakeholders;consequently, the focus of the paper is on stakeholder representation and success. Our analysis concludes thatrepresentation is an issue and that LCCs have a mixed level of success.Key words: public participation, success, representation, surveys, interviews


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