Forest planning and public participation: a possible methodological approach (original) (raw)

Assessing "Participation" in Forest Management: Workable Methods and Unworkable Assumptions

This paper reports the results of a pre-test in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, of four methods designed to assess the level and nature of participation by local people in forest management quickly and easily. Two of the methods -the "Iterative Continuum Method" (ICM) and the participatory card sorting method -were deemed helpful. One method, the communication network analysis, was discarded in its current form. The final method, the researcher guide on the functions of participation, was felt in need of revision. Although the hypothesised firnctions of participation are not wrong, in our opinion, they reflect a way of looking at forest management which, we concluded, needs rethinking.In our discussion of the change needed we make use of Jordan's concept of "authoritative knowledge" and "social" or "cultural capital" .We also suggest substituting "rights and obligations to manage the forest co-operatively " for "participation"in places like Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve (DSWR), where sustainable forest management is being assessed. Finally we conclude that, given the dynamism and complexity that characterise natural forests and their inhabitants, co-operation among all stakeholders in an ongoing dialogue is probably the only way that sustainable forest management can in fact occur.We urge researchers to continue the search for simple, inexpensive and reliable tools for assessing the issue we have called "participation in forest management."

Implementing participatory approaches in formulating regional forest policy

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2004

Forest policy-makers increasingly recognize the importance of public participation in planning and policy-making endeavours. In many countries public participation has been institutionalized into national forest policy. Despite the stated policy assurances, implementing participatory approaches has been a challenging task. This paper examines the public involvement in forest policy-making, particularly focusing on the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) programme in Australia. The RFA is regarded as the most ambitious, expensive and comprehensive resource planning exercise ever undertaken in the country. The evidence suggests that various participatory and deliberative approaches have been used under the RFA to allow for a plurality of environmental values, but that the integration of public values into final decision-making has been unsatisfactory. Process design, commitment and inadequate attention paid to conflict resolution can be attributed as reasons for sub-optimal outcomes.

Managing Public Forests: Understanding the Role of Collaborative Planning

Environmental Management, 1998

As federal land management agencies such as the USDA Forest Service increasingly choose to implement collaborative methods of public participation, research is needed to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the technique, to identify barriers to effective implementation of collaborative processes, and to provide recommendations for increasing its effectiveness. This paper reports on the findings of two studies focused on the experiences of Forest

Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe - Expert Level Meetings as a means to integrate the concept of ‘public participation’ into pan-European decision-making

Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe -Expert Level Meetings as a means to integrate the concept of 'public participation' into pan-European decision-making -An evaluative approach -Masterarbeit vorgelegt am 16.11.2004 Gießen, Lukas (2008): Ministerial conference on the protection of forests in Europe : expert level meetings as a means to integrate the concept of 'public participation' into pan-European decision-making ; an evaluative approach. Zugl.: Freiburg (Br.), Masterabeit, 2004 Göttingen : GOEDOC, Dokumenten-und Publikationsserver der Georg-August-Universität Verfügbar: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3249/webdoc-1749 Dieses Werk ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Es steht unter Creative Commons Lizenz 2.0 als freie Onlineversion über den GOEDOC – Dokumentenserver der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen bereit und darf gelesen, heruntergeladen sowie als Privatkopie ausgedruckt werden. Es ist nicht gestattet, Kopien oder gedruckte Fassungen der fr...

Public participation in sustainable forestry: the case of forest planning in Slovakia

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, 2014

Public participation is considered an important element of democracy. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate participatory approaches in the formulation processes of forest strategic documents and forest management plans in Slovakia. In order to present the context in which the public participation in forestry is applied, we describe the rules according to national forest law. The nationwide example is presented for the case of the National Forest Program formulation, where the scope of the forest management units is covered by the process of Forest Management Plans elaboration and adoption. The empirical findings from forest authorities' data demonstrates that participation is still very formal. The most common actors are public authorities represented by their official representatives and the most active actors besides forest owners or managers are environmental interest groups. To strengthen the participatory process in sustainable forestry planning, not only changes in legislation are needed but also an increase in public awareness concerning the significance of forestry resources.

Integration of ecological knowledge, landscape modelling, and public participation for the development of sustainable forest management

2001

We propose a multidisciplinary framework, integrating biophysical, social, and economic indicators into a spatially explicit landscape-modelling tool, to facilitate decision-making for sustainable forest management (SFM). To do so, we first propose indicators relating to criteria for biodiversity, soils, aquatic environments, forest productivity, and people developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers. We develop the concepts of planning and monitoring indicators and outline the importance of the role of adaptive management for SFM. The indicators are integrated into a modelling tool simulating various forest management scenarios. We explore the evolution of age class structure over time according to various forest management options, taking into account synergistic interactions between harvesting and wildfire. Since public participation in resource management has been shown to lead to improved decision-making, our process is driven by public deliberation for the definition of the objectives of forest management. The multiple outcomes of the modelling tool are to be used within the context of public participation for decision-making in forest management. Recommendations are made for the development of effective implementation of interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration. Principle conclusions regarding indicators of SFM: • For a management system to continually evolve towards SFM, adaptive management is essential; in this way new knowledge can contribute to the development of better practices. • The development of two types of indicators will benefit adaptive management: planning indicators are used within the modelling tool and serve to project forest conditions according to various management plans, and monitoring indicators are measured in the field in order to verify and perfect the knowledge that was used in the development of the modelling tool and to refine the planning process. • The range of ecological conditions caused by natural disturbances (natural variability) can be used as a benchmark for indicators, thus permitting a standardized approach for the development of indicator thresholds and comparisons among regions. • We propose the following planning indicators: for biodiversity, age class structure, species composition, and configuration of the forest, and road density; for water quality, the ratio of disturbed watershed area to lake volume; for soils, a synthetic indicator related to rotation period, parent material, site index, stand type, and harvesting method; and for forest productivity, average microsite distance to seed tree, age and species of seed tree, and the proportion of exposed mineral soil. • We propose the following monitoring indicators: for biodiversity, the structure and abundance of the avian community; for water quality, dissolved organic carbon concentration and light attenuation; for forest productivity, stocking rates of disturbed sites; and for people, the number of forest-users' groups involved in the process, the number of training programs i linking schools with local forest industry, acceptability of forestry practices, the number and proportion of direct jobs from the forest industry, the corrected mean household revenue, and the mean coverage ratio of local forestry-related businesses. Principle conclusions regarding landscape modelling: • The cumulative impacts (landscape legacies) of past disturbance and management (logging, fire suppression, etc.) that result in the present age class structure, may present challenges and/or opportunities for management objectives. • Scenario simulations suggest that current annual allowable cut levels exceed harvest levels required to maintain old growth and other habitat types. • Due to the inherent uncertainty in the timing or location of future fires, flexible policies and guidelines must be developed to maintain sustainable forest and wildlife. Principle conclusions regarding public participation: • Certification of forest management is leading to changes in the role of the provincial government; however, governments must maintain their regulatory role, since market mechanisms alone cannot ensure the safeguard of resources for future generations. • Using previous participation experiences as guides and limiting the number of initiatives conducted at the same time in any given region will be more efficient for both the participants and the forest managers. • Relationship building among stakeholders must be seen as an important outcome of any public participation process. • Public participation will involve a redistribution of rights and responsibilities.