Dimensions of power in forest resource decision-making: a case study of Nova Scotia’s forest conservation legislation

This study identifies power relationships within forest conservation decision-making in Nova Scotia, Canada. Rather than rely on the ‘customary science’ of resource conservation largely based on biological and physical parameters, this analysis is steeped in the traditions of social science and policy analysis. This study’s central focus is the Forest Improvement Act (FIA): 1962-1986. Forest conservation policies and legislative initiatives developed prior to FIA enactment such as the Small Tree Act (STA): 1942 - 1965 are treated in this study as the FIA’s policy gestation period. Theoretical and practical insights derived from this pre-FIA period are used in the assessment of the FIA and these combined understandings are subsequently applied to the analysis of contemporary forest conservation policy. For contemporary analysis, six case studies including the Nova Scotia Envirofor process and the St. Mary’s River Landscape and Ecology Management proposal, as well as a recent provincial government initiative are examined. This study utilises a broad range of decision-making and resource management theory to tease out understandings of the particular character of the policy process. The analysis utilises various decision-making models, theories of power, and multi-agency decision making models as well as the Environmental Modernisation literature developed by Turner, O’Riordan and Weale and others. In addition to the investigative methodologies used generally throughout this study, the Envirofor and the St. Mary’s case studies employed a ‘participant observer’ approach that provided otherwise unavailable insights into these conservation initiatives. Regardless of policy content, this study shows that external forces such as woodfibre markets were key to the implementation of ground level forest conservation. Ironically, this study links the renewal of forest conservation legislation to the demand for increased forest exploitation. New forest policy initiatives were as much to do with pacifying conservation interests as they were about promoting ground level forest conservation

Integrated Resource and Environmental Management: The Human Dimension

Integrated Resource and Environmental Management (IREM) can be defined as both a management process and a philosophy, that takes into account the many values associated with natural resources within a particular area. This book presents an overview and history of natural resource management, from a global perspective. It discusses the challenges facing IREM by examining issues such as conflict, property rights and the role of science in the management of natural resource. It also addresses the definition and application of IREM from several different contexts, including real-world applications, planning frameworks, and complex systems. It provides a comprehensive aid in natural resource decision-making within the context of the “real world.

APPLYING THE RAPID MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT (RMA) METHODOLOGY TO ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT.

In the fall of 2002, approximately sixty undergraduate students from a broad range of disciplines at Acadia University enrolled in an interdisciplinary course entitled Sustainable Nova Scotia. While the theoretical and practical implications of this pedagogical approach are to be discussed elsewhere, this paper focuses on one course project that tested the feasibility of the Rapid Management Assessment (RMA) process developed by the Protected Areas Conservation Trust of Belize, Central America to hone interdisciplinary analysis in sustainable resource and environmental management. This project also tested the practicality of adapting the RMA process designed for protected area applications in a developing country to application in a predominantly working landscape in a developed country. The methodology included the minor revision of the RMA procedures manual to fit a Canadian working landscape, and the facilitation of eight upper-level students in an interdisciplinary team of student scientists/ecosystem managers. The disciplines represented included economics, business administration, environmental science, political science, recreation management, biology and arts. This team was charged with advising on sustainability strategies for the Gaspereau/Black River Watershed in Kings County, Nova Scotia. This project included

Practitioner insights

Policy sciences framework, Ecosystem management, Collaborative resource management, Federal land management, Local, Stakeholders,

Advancing Aquatic Ecosystem-Based Management with Full Consideration of the Social-Ecological System

In this study we present an integrated Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approach that attempts to reconcile several concepts including integratedecosystem assessment (IEA), marine spatial planning, resilience thinking, and complex adaptive systems. The approach builds on the IEA process but enhances it by explicitly considering the full social-ecological system (SES) and the creation of ageneric framework for assessment of ecosystem status and management strategyevaluation