Creating and sustaining community capacity for ecosystem-based management: Is local government the key?

Published Date
September 2008, Vol.88(4):1396–1405, doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.07.018

Author 

William E. Fleeger ^,

Mimi L. Becker 

Department of Natural Resources, College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, University of New Hampshire, 56 College Road, 215 James Hall, Durham, NH 03824-3589, USA

Received 4 July 2006. Revised 25 June 2007. Accepted 14 July 2007. Available online 30 August 2007.

Abstract

Recently, collaborative approaches to natural resource management have been widely promoted as ways to broaden participation and community involvement in furthering the goals of ecosystem management. The language of collaboration has even been incorporated into controversial legislation, such as the US Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. This research examines collaboration and sharing management responsibility for federal public land with local communities through a case study of the Ashland Municipal Watershed in southern Oregon. A policy sciences approach is used to analyze community participation and institutional relationships between the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and local city government in the planning processes of five land management actions occurring over a 7-year period. The knowledge gained from examining differing approaches to planning and decision making in the Ashland watershed is used to suggest future planning processes to develop and sustain the community capacity necessary to support implementation of community-based ecosystem management.

Keywords

Ecosystem management

Ecosystem-based management

Community-based management

Healthy Forests Restoration Act

Public lands

---

 Table 1

Table 1.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author. Permanent address: 70 Church Street, Deerfield, NH 03037, USA. Tel./fax: +1 603 463 7899.

For further details log on website :
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/7/620