Implementing Participatory Decision Making in Forest Planning |
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Authors: | Jayanath Ananda |
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Institution: | (1) School of Business, La Trobe University, Wodonga Vic, 3690, Australia |
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Abstract: | Forest policy decisions are often a source of debate, conflict, and tension in many countries. The debate over forest land-use
decisions often hinges on disagreements about societal values related to forest resource use. Disagreements on social value
positions are fought out repeatedly at local, regional, national, and international levels at an enormous social cost. Forest
policy problems have some inherent characteristics that make them more difficult to deal with. On the one hand, forest policy
decisions involve uncertainty, long time scales, and complex natural systems and processes. On the other hand, such decisions
encompass social, political, and cultural systems that are evolving in response to forces such as globalization. Until recently,
forest policy was heavily influenced by the scientific community and various economic models of optimal resource use. However,
growing environmental awareness and acceptance of participatory democracy models in policy formulation have forced the public
authorities to introduce new participatory mechanisms to manage forest resources. Most often, the efforts to include the public
in policy formulation can be described using the lower rungs of Arnstein’s public participation typology. This paper presents
an approach that incorporates stakeholder preferences into forest land-use policy using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).
An illustrative case of regional forest-policy formulation in Australia is used to demonstrate the approach. It is contended
that applying the AHP in the policy process could considerably enhance the transparency of participatory process and public
acceptance of policy decisions. |
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Keywords: | Public policy Analytic hierarchy process Australia Forest land-use decisions Public participation Stakeholders |
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