Public participation in British Columbia forest management. (Special issue: Civic engagement in governing forest ecosystems in Canada)

摘要

Conceptions and challenges of public participation in British Columbia are reviewed to identify those characteristics of planning processes that serve to benefit or constrain the interests and needs of public stakeholders. Perspectives on public participation, including representative and participatory democracies, and approaches to incorporating public perspectives in decision-making (i.e., shared decision-making, consensus-building, and interest-based negotiation) are presented to demonstrate the different approaches (and their benefits and challenges) available for providing opportunities for public participation. Lessons from other natural resource management contexts are distilled and used to evaluate the BC context. Three principal forest planning and management frameworks (the Commission on Resources and the Environment, Land and Resource Management Plans, and sustainable forest management certification) are examined in light of whether meaningful opportunities for public participation were provided.