Introducing a framework for good and adaptive governance: An application to fire management planning in Canada’s boreal forest

Almstedt, Åsa; Reed, Maureen G.

doi:10.5558/tfc2013-119

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…Institutions can be seen to operate at three distinct levels to influence social action: operational, i.e., rules guiding individual action; collective choice, i.e., binding rules applied collectively to groups of people; and constitutional, i.e., procedural rules that structure collective-choice decisions (Ostrom 2005). Scholarship on adaptive governance, which captures many of the most important lessons of resilience thinking as applied to social organization, is centrally concerned with institutional arrangements at all three levels that allow for learning and adaptation to environmental variation (Dietz et al 2003, Scholz and Stiftel 2005, Djalante et al 2011, Almstedt and Reed 2013, Cumming et al 2013, Chaffin et al 2014. The concept of adaptive governance is built upon the understanding that opportunities for improved social-ecological resilience emerge from processes of learning through collaboration, management, feedback, and adjustment, and that these dynamics reflect institutional influences at multiple scales.…”

Section: Institutions and Adaptive Governance In Fire Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Re-envisioning community-wildfire relations in the U.S. West as adaptive governance

Abrams¹,

Knapp²,

Paveglio³

et al. 2015

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Prompted by a series of increasingly destructive, expensive, and highly visible wildfire crises in human communities across the globe, a robust body of scholarship has emerged to theorize, conceptualize, and measure community-level resilience to wildfires. To date, however, insufficient consideration has been given to wildfire resilience as a process of adaptive governance mediated by institutions at multiple scales. Here we explore the possibilities for addressing this gap through an analysis of wildfire resilience among wildland-urban interface communities in the western region of the United States. We re-engage important but overlooked components of social-ecological system resilience by situating rural communities within their state-to national-level institutional contexts; we then analyze two communities in Nevada and New Mexico in terms of their institutional settings and responses to recent wildfire events. We frame our analysis around the concepts of scale matching, linking within and across scales, and institutional flexibility.

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Section: Institutions and Adaptive Governance In Fire Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Re-envisioning community-wildfire relations in the U.S. West as adaptive governance

Abrams¹,

Knapp²,

Paveglio³

et al. 2015

E&S

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“…Various papers have emphasized the potential of participatory planning networks to build wildfire resilient landscapes in the face of current and future impacts of suppression and land-use and climatic changes [ 3 – 7 ]. Studies have stressed the need to understand resilience as a process of adaptive governance mediated by institutions at multiple scales, as it opens social opportunities to learn from and adapt to wildfire [ 11 , 46 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Democratizing wildfire strategies. Do you realize what it means? Insights from a participatory process in the Montseny region (Catalonia, Spain)

et al. 2018

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Participatory planning networks made of government agencies, stakeholders, citizens and scientists are receiving attention as a potential pathway to build resilient landscapes in the face of increased wildfire impacts due to suppression policies and land-use and climate changes. A key challenge for these networks lies in incorporating local knowledge and social values about landscape into operational wildfire management strategies. As large wildfires overcome the suppression capacity of the fire departments, such strategies entail difficult decisions about intervention priorities among different regions, values and socioeconomic interests. Therefore there is increasing interest in developing tools that facilitate decision-making during emergencies. In this paper we present a method to democratize wildfire strategies by incorporating social values about landscape in both suppression and prevention planning. We do so by reporting and critically reflecting on the experience from a pilot participatory process conducted in a region of Catalonia (Spain). There, we built a network of researchers, practitioners and citizens across spatial and governance scales. We combined knowledge on expected wildfires, landscape co-valuation by relevant actors, and citizen participation sessions to design a wildfire strategy that minimized the loss of social values. Drawing on insights from political ecology and transformation science, we discuss what the attempt to democratize wildfire strategies entails in terms of power relationships and potential for social-ecological transformation. Based on our experience, we suggest a trade-off between current wildfire risk levels and democratic management in the fire-prone regions of many western countries. In turn, the political negotiation about the landscape effects of wildfire expert knowledge is shown as a potential transformation pathway towards lower risk landscapes that can re-define agency over landscape and foster community re-learning on fire. We conclude that democratizing wildfire strategies ultimately entails co-shaping the landscapes and societies of the future.

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“…Scott and Lemieux [25] also highlighted the importance of recognizing and adapting to the increasingly dynamic nature of formerly "stable" ecosystems within defined park boundaries. Successful flexibility by managers to adapt and respond to climate change impacts was additionally linked to an adaptive governance system, which empowered the managers through financial support and legislation [27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Natural Resource Professionals in Addressing Climate Change

Allred

Schneider

Reeder

2016

Climate

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Natural resource professionals, ranging from forest managers and educators to floodplain managers, play a critical role in implementing and conducting outreach with regards to climate mitigation and adaptation appropriate to local and regional scales. Natural resource professionals can also pave the way by adopting actions that serve as demonstrations of efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or adapt natural systems for the future. A web survey of 1488 natural resource professionals across New York State (NYS) was conducted to assess their attitudes toward climate change, views toward climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities, actions taken to address climate change, and barriers faced as they relate to their professional responsibilities. The majority of natural resource professionals believe that climate change is happening, but there was slightly less agreement about human causes of climate change. Most natural resource professionals (69%) see evidence of how climate change is impacting natural resources in NYS, but few (17%) believed that there was sufficient information about how to address climate impacts at the local level. Nearly 60% of natural resources professionals undertook climate mitigation or adaptation actions in their work. Prominent influencing factors for action were proactive leadership and local impacts. Barriers to taking action on climate change were a lack of human and financial resources, the nature of costs relative to benefits, and lack of perceived threat. As managers and educators responsible for local water, land, and wildlife resources, natural resource professionals witness changes resulting from climate change first-hand. This paper will be useful to decision-makers at state and federal government levels regarding policies, incentives, and guidance that can be created with the goal of promoting a sound natural resource strategy in support of climate change readiness.

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Introducing a framework for good and adaptive governance: An application to fire management planning in Canada’s boreal forest

Cited by 15 publications

References 27 publications

Re-envisioning community-wildfire relations in the U.S. West as adaptive governance

Re-envisioning community-wildfire relations in the U.S. West as adaptive governance

Democratizing wildfire strategies. Do you realize what it means? Insights from a participatory process in the Montseny region (Catalonia, Spain)

The Role of Natural Resource Professionals in Addressing Climate Change

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