A New Era for Collaborative Forest Management: Policy and Practice insights from the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program

This book assesses the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) and identifies lessons learned for governance and policy through this new and innovative approach to collaborative forest management.

Unlike anything else in US public land management, the CFLRP is a nationwide program that requires collaboration throughout the life of national forest restoration projects, joining agency partners and local stakeholder groups in a kind of decade-long restoration marriage. This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the governance dynamics of the program, examining: questions about collaborative governance processes and the dynamics of trust, accountability and capacity; how scientific information is used in making decisions and integrated into adaptive management processes; and the topic of collaboration through implementation, an underdeveloped area of collaborative governance literature. Bringing together chapters from a community of social science and policy researchers who have conducted studies across multiple CFLRP projects, this volume generates insights, not just about the program, but also about dynamics that are central to collaborative and landscape approaches to land management and relevant for broader practice.

This volume is a timely and important contribution to environmental governance scholarship. It will be of interest to researchers and students of natural resource management, environmental governance, and forestry, as well as practitioners and policy makers involved in forest and ecosystem restoration efforts, and collaborative natural resource management more broadly.

William H. Butler is Associate Professor of Environmental Planning in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University, USA. His research has focused on collaborative environmental planning and management, particularly in forest management, ecological restoration, and climate change adaptation.

Courtney A. Schultz is Associate Professor of Forest and Natural Resource Policy and Director of the Public Lands Policy Group in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University, USA. Her research focuses on the intersection of science, policy, and law in natural resource management, particularly how policy mediates the adoption and application of science-based land management principles.