Handshakes and Head Fakes: When Social Dynamics Intersect with Institutional Processes in Collaborative, Adaptive Forest Restoration.
Location
USU Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
https://www.restoringthewest.org/
Abstract
The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) has created the conditions in which collaborative adaptive management (CAM) approaches in forest restoration can be tested. In theory, CAM engages stakeholders to collectively: define forest landscape restoration goals, assumptions, uncertainties, and options; develop and implement a science-based monitoring strategy to assess restoration effects; deliberate the effects of actions on goals, assumptions, and uncertainties; and recommend changes in goals, assumptions, and actions based on the “best available science”. In reality, since people are involved, things get messy, fast. My presentation addresses two questions: 1) In what ways do multi-stakeholder group dynamics interact with federal agency institutional and organizational processes?; and 2) To what extent do these interactions facilitate or frustrate collaborative adaptive management on federal landscapes? Drawing on experiences and perspectives of colleagues involved with the Colorado Front Range CFLRP, the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, and the Uncompahgre Plateau CFLRP, I discuss social group dynamics and institutional/organizational factors affecting CAM across these cases. A key take-away is that in order for CAM to realize its potential for integrating science into forest restoration decision-making, CAM participants need to be intentional and reflexive about social group dynamics and institutional/organizational processes.
Handshakes and Head Fakes: When Social Dynamics Intersect with Institutional Processes in Collaborative, Adaptive Forest Restoration.
USU Eccles Conference Center
The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) has created the conditions in which collaborative adaptive management (CAM) approaches in forest restoration can be tested. In theory, CAM engages stakeholders to collectively: define forest landscape restoration goals, assumptions, uncertainties, and options; develop and implement a science-based monitoring strategy to assess restoration effects; deliberate the effects of actions on goals, assumptions, and uncertainties; and recommend changes in goals, assumptions, and actions based on the “best available science”. In reality, since people are involved, things get messy, fast. My presentation addresses two questions: 1) In what ways do multi-stakeholder group dynamics interact with federal agency institutional and organizational processes?; and 2) To what extent do these interactions facilitate or frustrate collaborative adaptive management on federal landscapes? Drawing on experiences and perspectives of colleagues involved with the Colorado Front Range CFLRP, the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, and the Uncompahgre Plateau CFLRP, I discuss social group dynamics and institutional/organizational factors affecting CAM across these cases. A key take-away is that in order for CAM to realize its potential for integrating science into forest restoration decision-making, CAM participants need to be intentional and reflexive about social group dynamics and institutional/organizational processes.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/rtw/2017/Oct17/3
Comments
Tony Cheng is Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and Professor in the Department of Forest & Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University. His primary research interest is in forest governance, policy and administration, with a focus on multi-stakeholder collaborative approaches to promote resilient social-ecological systems linked to forest landscapes. In his capacity as director of CFRI, Tony oversees programs to develop, compile, and apply locally-relevant scientific information to achieve forest restoration and wildfire hazard reduction goals. His research publications appear in a wide diversity of interdisciplinary journals, such as Ecology and Society, Environmental Management, Forest Ecology and Management, Forest Policy & Economics, Forest Science, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Human Ecology Review, Journal of Forestry, and Society & Natural Resources. Born and raised in eastern Washington’s Palouse country, Tony has a PhD in Forestry from Oregon State University, a MS in Forestry from the University of Minnesota, and a BA in Political Science from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA.