What to Expect from Collaboration in Natural Resource Management

Book excerpt: Collaborative approaches to natural resource management have become increasingly popular since the 1980s in the United States, to the point where the federal government now mandates them for some federal activities and federally funded projects. For example, through the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and appropriations for the National Fire Plan, Congress has directed that federal land management agencies should make the states and local governments full partners in collaborative resource management, and work closely with citizens and governments at all levels. (Public Law 108-148) In August 2004, President Bush released an Executive Order calling for cooperative conservation, with an emphasis on appropriate inclusion of local participation in federal decisionmaking, [including] collaborative activity among federal, state, local, and tribal governments, private for-profit and nonprofit institutions, other nongovernmental entities and individuals.