PREFACE
A movement is taking root in which governments at all levels in the United States are changing the way they engage in environmental management. After years of attempts by public agencies to implement policy from the top down, these agencies increasingly are using collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders to address environmental problems. Sometimes this collaboration takes place among public agencies. In other instances, collaboration primarily involves actors in the private and nonprofit sectors, with public agencies playing a relatively minor role. Governments fill a wide range of roles, all of which influence both the process and the outcomes of collaborative environmental management. By governments, we mean both the government personnel (actors) who participate in these collaborations and the institutions of government, especially the administrative state. Examining a consistent set of factors across the cases presented in Collaborative Environmental Management allows us to gain greater insight into the variety of roles that governmental actors play and the ways that governmental institutions leave their mark on these initiatives.
It is fitting that writing a book about collaboration should be a truly collaborative endeavor. Our goal in crafting a cowritten book reflects our belief in the synergies that are possible when multiple authors write, read, reflect on, and rewrite text together. We sought to integrate concepts across a diverse array of cases, drawing lessons and identifying patterns from a variety of contexts. Each of the authors has been actively studying collaborative environmental management since the 1990s. Our disciplinary backgrounds range from political science and public policy to environmental planning, environmental science, natural resource management, and organizational theory. We have combined our insights from various disciplines in writing this collaborative volume about collaborative environmental management.
From the outset, we wanted to understand how collaborative processes work and whether government could be an equal partner while often being the party accountable for the decisions reached and the outcomes achieved. With this in mind, we identified cases of collaborative natural resource planning that varied based on whether governments led the effort, encouraged the effort without leading it, or followed an effort that was led by other parties. We then systematically examined the influence of governmental actors and institutions on both the processes and outcomes of these endeavors. In each case, we elaborated on how governmental actors and institutions affected the way issues were defined, the resources available for collaboration, and the organizational processes and structures established. We also considered the environmental and social outcomes realized, and the extent to which these outcomes resulted from government influence and intervention.
We have structured this book in several parts. In the opening chapter, we discuss trends in public administration, public policy, and environmental management leading to increased interest in and emphasis on collaboration. We also identify key themes and issues raised in the scholarly literature, which we use to frame the chapters that follow. In Parts I, II, and III, we describe six cases of collaborative environmental management. We have grouped these cases into three broad types of governmental roles: following, encouraging, and leading. These cases span a wide variety of natural resources, including watersheds, farmland, animal habitats, rivers, forests, and estuaries. In Part IV, we synthesize findings across the cases to explain the ways that government as actor and as institution affects collaborative efforts.
The structure of this volume can be likened to improvisational jazz. As with jazz, early on we articulate the dominant themes that will be featured throughout the performance. The middle portion of the work provides variations on these themes, with each chapter including subthemes and riffs along the way. In concluding the piece, the dominant themes are revisited and replayed, though synthesized in a new way. This metaphor is not limited to the chapters, but also applies to the process through which the book was written. As with improvisation, each author both took the lead and followed others, generated and expressed new ideas, reconceptualized themes using input from collaborators, and built creatively on shared ideas. Thus the dynamics among jazz musicians and the concept of improvisational jazz serve as metaphors for the process of writing this book as well as for the product that has emerged. We hope that students, researchers, practitioners, and other interested readers will find this collaborative effort interesting and thought provoking.
Reading this book in its entirety will give the fullest picture of governmental roles in collaborative environmental management. We also intended, however, to provide lively cases that could stand meaningfully on their own. To this end, each case chapter focuses on a particular question concerning the practice of collaborative environmental management and its relation to government. This arrangement, we believe, makes the book accessible and relevant to individuals, members of nongovernmental organizations, policy-makers, and resource managers who are interested in developing a richer understanding of collaborative environmental management. It also is well-suited for classroom use, where an instructor with limited course time might assign the first and the last two chapters, along with a subset of the case study chapters.
T.K., T.S., J.C.,