A participatory process for identifying and prioritizing policy-relevant research questions in natural resource management: a case study from the UK forestry sector

Petrokofsky, Gillian; Brown, Nicholas D.; Hemery, G. E.; Woodward, Steve; Wilson, Edward R.; Weatherall, Andrew; Stokes, Victoria; Smithers, R.; Sangster, Marcus; Russell, Karen; Pullin, Andrew S.; Price, Colin; Morecroft, Michael; Malins, Mark; Lawrence, Anna; Kirby, K. J.; Godbold, D. G.; Charman, Elisabeth C.; Boshier, David; Bosbeer, Sasha; Arnold, J. E. M.

doi:10.1093/forestry/cpq018

Cited by 29 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…According to a recent participatory process, 'finding the most technically and financially effective ways of identifying, monitoring and controlling invasive species, pests and disease' is one of the top policy-relevant research questions in the UK forestry sector (Petrokofsky et al 2010). This aim is complicated by concurrent objectives in biodiversity conservation.…”

Section: Interdisciplinarity Stakeholder Involvement and Trade-offsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases—opinions and trends

et al. 2012

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There has been a remarkable scientific output on the topic of how climate change is likely to affect plant diseases. This overview addresses the need for review of this burgeoning literature by summarizing opinions of previous reviews and trends in recent studies on the impacts of climate change on plant health. Sudden Oak Death is used as an introductory case study: Californian forests could become even more susceptible to this emerging plant disease, if spring precipitations will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, although climate shifts may also affect the current synchronicity between host cambium activity and pathogen colonization rate. A summary of observed and predicted climate changes, as well as of direct effects of climate change on pathosystems, is provided. Prediction and management of climate change effects on plant health are complicated by indirect effects and the interactions with global change drivers. Uncertainty in models of plant disease development under climate change calls for a diversity of management strategies, from more participatory approaches to interdisciplinary science. Involvement of stakeholders and scientists from outside plant pathology shows the importance of trade-offs, for example in the land-sharing vs. sparing debate. Further research is needed on climate change and plant health in mountain, boreal, Mediterranean and tropical regions, with multiple climate change factors and scenarios (including our responses to it, e.g. the assisted migration of plants), in relation to endophytes, viruses and mycorrhiza, using long-term and large-scale datasets and considering various plant disease control methods.Keywords Adaptive ecosystem management . Biotic interactions . Landscape pathology . Phytophthora ramorum . Plant disease epidemiology . Tree fungal pathogens Up to the 1990s, there was little information about climate change impacts on plant disease. For example, Eur J Plant Pathol

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Section: Interdisciplinarity Stakeholder Involvement and Trade-offsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases—opinions and trends

et al. 2012

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“…In the past decade a number of similar initiatives have been conducted globally (Parsons et al 2014, Sutherland et al 2009) and regionally in the United States , Canada , the Alps (Walzer et al 2013) and in Switzerland (Braunisch et al 2012). In addition to these ranking exercises, thematic and sectoral research priorities have been identified in the fields of forest management (Petrokofsky et al 2010), agriculture (Pretty et al 2010), invasive species (Matzek et al 2013) and paleo-ecology (Seddon et al 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the research-practice gap: Conservation research priorities in a Central and Eastern European country

Mihók

Kovács

Balázs

et al. 2015

Journal for Nature Conservation

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Halting biodiversity loss is a critical aim for the forthcoming decades, but is hindered by the gap between research and practice. Bridging this gap is a significant challenge in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, where, compared to Western European countries, biodiversity is higher but the research budget is lower. Approaches to address bridging this gap include participatory research prioritizing exercises. These demand-driven collaborative ranking processes have proven to be a useful tool in providing a research agenda derived from a review of critical challenges based on stakeholder engagement. However, for research agendas to be effectively realized, they are best developed and implemented at the operative level of research financing and implementation. This paper shows the process and the outcome of an exercise conducted in Hungary aiming to compile the most important conservation research questions at the country-level and outlines a set of further measures and tools required for dissemination and advocacy for the research agenda. During the process 792 research questions were collated from conservation practitioners and natural resource managers based on interviews and via an online questionnaire; the final 50 most important questions were identified by practitioners and policy makers during an expert workshop. Questions are embedded in global and EU biodiversity targets and imply a pragmatic approach with the aim of identifying research that supports policy-and decision-making regarding habitat management, landuse and regional development, while also focussing on conflicting issues. The outcome of the process includes the potential for lobbying, therefore post-publication activities and dissemination strategies are outlined as an integrated part of the exercise.

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“…Decision making and public opinion appears as one of the relevant themes for future research in natural resource management (Petrokofsky et al, 2010). In practice, MCDM methods have been implemented to inform decision problems and public participation and they will continue to be essential in forest and environmental management (Kangas and Kangas, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

Sustainable Forest Management in a Mediterranean region: Social preferences

et al. 2013

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Aim of study: There is a lack of empirical research that deals with sustainable forest management in Mediterranean regions, among the most vulnerable ecosystems. The main purpose of this work is to define the strategic criteria and objectives for sustainable forest management and aggregate the preferences of stakeholders in a Mediterranean region, using AHP and Goal Programming.Area of study: Valencian Community (Spain).Material and Methods: Firstly, we identified forest stakeholders and structured a decision hierarchy. Then a workshop was carried out to test and validate the proposed criteria and objectives, as well as a survey to determine social preferences. Secondly, another survey was conducted amongst experts to prioritize action plans.Main results: Stakeholders’ preferences gave the greatest importance to the environmental criteria (hydrological regulation and erosion, climate change mitigation and biodiversity) with an average weight of 40%. Social criteria (employment, recreational activities and landscape) had a weight of 38% and 22% the economic criteria case (wood, hunting and fishing, livestock, renewable energies, rural tourism and mining). The results showed that new products and services such as tourism, renewable energies, landscape, hydrological regulation and erosion control, biodiversity or climate change mitigation are very relevant objectives. We also prioritized action plans comparing them with the distribution of the administration budget.Research highlights: The environmental and social criteria are much more important than the economic ones in the regional planning of the Mediterranean forest, regardless of the method used to aggregate the social preferences and if the forest is public or private.Key words: Multiple Criteria Decision Making; Goal Programming; Analytic Hierarchy Process; Preferences Aggregation.

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A participatory process for identifying and prioritizing policy-relevant research questions in natural resource management: a case study from the UK forestry sector

Cited by 29 publications

References 24 publications

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases—opinions and trends

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases—opinions and trends

Bridging the research-practice gap: Conservation research priorities in a Central and Eastern European country

Sustainable Forest Management in a Mediterranean region: Social preferences

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