Examining Local Stakeholder Participation in Landscape Conservation Design

The conservation community is increasingly taking a collaborative, landscape-level approach to natural resource management. Despite its potential advantages, this conservation model faces challenges. Primary among these is the... [ view full abstract ]

The conservation community is increasingly taking a collaborative, landscape-level approach to natural resource management. Despite its potential advantages, this conservation model faces challenges. Primary among these is the question of how to ensure that ecosystem-wide goals for conservation, such as those articulated through Landscape Conservation Cooperatives’ Landscape Conservation Designs (LCDs), can effectively inform local management plans and subsequent management actions. Building capacity for LCDs to inform local management plans across complex landscapes will rely on working with a variety of stakeholders, especially local stakeholders. Despite recommendations to this effect appearing in environmental planning literature, opportunities for local stakeholders to participate in landscape conservation planning are limited.  Lack of local participation persists in part because conservation leaders are uncertain about whether, when, and how local stakeholders might be most effectively integrated into decision processes. This study explored the roles of local stakeholder input in LCD, including direct engagement and consideration of primary and secondary social data. We conducted a multiple LCD case-study investigation to understand how social data and local stakeholder engagement are currently being used in three LCD initiatives throughout the U.S., and how these opportunities for participation impact the LCDs' utility. Case studies involved 105 semi-structured, face-to-face and telephone interviews, including interviews with 50 members of LCD development teams and 40 potential end-users of the LCDs’ decision support tools. We also interviewed coordinators of 15 additional LCD initiatives to expand our perspective on how local stakeholder participation has been and could be incorporated into LCD decision-making processes. Results indicate local stakeholder participation is essential for enhancing the local relevance and utility of LCD’s decision support tools and promoting local stakeholders’ support of LCD efforts. Local stakeholders prefer to be engaged at the start of decision-making processes, receive communications throughout the process, and have the option to participate indirectly through a representative. Findings also indicate all potentially impacted stakeholders—not only those focused on conservation—should be consulted during LCD development. Results and recommendations from the study are intended to benefit large landscape conservation development teams in their efforts to plan and implement socio-politically feasible, broad-scale conservation designs.