An Assessment of Stakeholder Advisory Committees in Forest Management: Case Studies from Manitoba, Canada

摘要

Forest management in Canada is evolving from being largely bilateral and closed to being more inclusive and open. In an effort to test new approaches to public participation, many forest products companies have established advisory committees. Since there is little empirical evidence documenting advisory committee processes, our purpose was to determine the strengths and weaknesses of such processes. This was achieved by assessing the advisory committees of three major forest products companies in Manitoba, Canada, responsible for managing over 5 million hectares of productive forest. Our approach was inductive and qualitative, involving standardized, semistructured interviews with committee members. Results coalesce around both process and outcomestrengths and weaknesses, such as multiple involvement techniques, information sharing and communication, and breadth of participant learning. While the results are mixed, the study confirms that advisory committees have promise as a method of actively involving a select group of stakeholders in forest management.