2002 Socioeconomic Topics2002 Socioeconomic Topics

Richard Haynes, Program Manager

Human and Natural Resource Interactions Research Program

Socioeconomic Research in Support of Federal Land

Management Monitoring market activity as a proxy for

economic conditions Developing notions of social well-being and

their application in land management planning

Assessing the success of the Adaptive Management Process

Understanding the nontimber forest products industry

Socioeconomic Research in Support of Federal Land Management (cont.)

Developing an understanding of communities– From dependency to adaptability,

understanding community transformations– Developing community typologies

Social and economic aspects of changing management paradigms

Assessing viability and Assessing viability and adaptability of forest based adaptability of forest based

communitiescommunities

Ellen Donoghue, Portland Forestry Sciences Laboratory

What is viability and adaptability?

Community viability and adaptability is one indicator used in the Montreal Process for assessing the progress toward sustainable forest management

The past two decades has seen an evolution in terms used to depict communities adjacent to public forests

Viability and adaptability emphasize the complex, dynamic and interrelated aspects of communities and the natural resources that surround them

Findings

Helps managers determine the extent that land management activities promote the well being of forest industries and communities.

Recent work has identified the communities in the Northern Spotted Owl Region—there are 1314 non-metropolitan localities of varying sizes (250-115,000 people)

N

0 40 80 120 Miles

Lake

State borderCommunity

Metropolitan area

Communities in the

NWFP Region

Policy Implications

Helps us understand the relation between communities and the forests and contributes to the discussion of how human activities can lead to sustainable forest management

In general, results show that while the area that is thought to have low viability covers a third of the Northwest, a small part (probably around 10%) of the population lives in this area

Management Implications

Helps us understand the propensity of communities to be adaptable in response to changing conditions resulting from changes in land management activities

Could help us be more selective in the design of assistance programs

Provides a baseline for social and economic monitoring at the community level

Assessing the acceptability of Assessing the acceptability of forest management practices forest management practices

and conditionsand conditions

George Stankey, Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory

Findings

The process of judging acceptability of forest management practices and conditions is highly complex and the role of science only one factor

All judgments are provisional and can change as more information becomes available

The distrust of large organizations can override trust developed at the local levels between land managers and communities

Policy Implications

We need to understand both the context in which judgments are made as well as how public values are changing

We need to be active participants in the forums where the public is developing their notions of social acceptability of our actions

Management Implications Social acceptability emerges when the

publics are involved throughout the entire planning process

A commitment to building social acceptability should permeate the planning processes – Requires monitoring of changes in public uses,

values– Requires understanding of the institutional

forums where judgments of social acceptability are made

When social acceptability cannot be achieved, legal and political remedies are often the means of resolution