Collaboration in Natural Resource Management

Collaboration in many sectors of resource management was born out of necessity: to resolve specific conflicts and advance resource management problem-solving beyond legislative and judicial battlegrounds. It has been and continues to be a pragmatic approach. In recent years, however, collaboration is moving towards a form of governance, not just focusing on specific resource problems but as a general approach to steering policy and management in the face of the complexities and uncertainties associated with environmental, political, and socio-economic change. This evolution from problem-solving process to governance mechanism raises new practical and research questions. I will focus on opportunities and challenges associated with this new generation of collaboration in natural resource management, drawing on my work in public forest management. Of particular interest is how ‘horizontal’ collaborative networks and processes integrate with ‘vertical’ bureaucratic organizational structures and processes to achieve more coordinated, adaptive resource management. I draw on three analytical lenses to explore and analyze the pathways and barriers to collaborative resource governance: Collaborative Public Management, with its roots in public administration; Adaptive Governance, which focuses on mechanisms of social learning and cross-scale integration; and Historical Institutionalism, a subfield of political science that concerns itself with the problem of path-dependence in affecting institutional change and adaptation. Presented March 8, 2010

Dr. Steelman's research interests include: improving the governance of environmental and natural resources, with an emphasis on science, policy and decision making interactions. Her current and past projects have included: watershed remediation and management; land and open space protection; and national forest planning and community forestry wildfire. She is the author of Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Governance (Georgetown University Press, 2010) and co-author of Knowledge and Environmental Policy: Re-imagining the Boundaries of Science and Politics (MIT Press, 2010), Collaborative Environmental Management: What Role for Government? (Resources for the Future, 2004), and Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy and Decision Making (Columbia University Press, 2005) and numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Rosemary O'Leary is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration. An elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, she was a senior Fulbright scholar in Malaysia in 1998-1999 and the Philippines in 2005-2006. Previously O'Leary was professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University and co-founder and co-director of the Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute. Dr. O’Leary’s areas of expertise include Public Management, Environmental Policy, Dispute Resolution, and Law.