Adaptive participation in watershed management

Excerpt

Much of the guidance on watershed management stresses the need for collaboration among a variety of interested parties. For example, the first principle of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) framework document on watershed management states that people who are most affected by management decisions should be “involved throughout” and should “shape key decisions” (U.S. EPA) 1996). Similarly, a recent National Research Council (NRC 1999) report stresses the need for watershed management to integrate science and deliberative process. Although there is some question whether such collaborative efforts can produce results (e.g., Goldfarb 1994; Napier 1998), other empirical research suggests that participation can in some instances improve outcomes in general (Chess and Purcell 1999; Yaffee et al. 1996), and watershed management in particular (e.g., Astrack et al. 1984; Kenney 1997; Kich 1980; Stuart 1993). The Natural Resources Law Center's (NRLC) research on seventy-six western watershed initiatives (1998), for example, found that despite complications associated with “broad and open” memberships, participation is one of the five qualities “instrumental to success in watershed initiatives,” along with: leadership, resources, appropriate focus, and “credible and efficient processes of decision …