Public Participation at a Crossroads: Manipulation or Meaningful Engagement in the Boreal Region

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Abstract
Advances in public participation are stimulated by multiple drivers, including public concern for environmental degradation, conflict between forest users, Indigenous rights, and international agreements. Yet, with many notable advances, innovation has stagnated, and the quality of participatory processes in forest management is highly variable. The body of evidence to date demonstrates weaknesses in the design and implementation of participatory processes. With examples from Europe and North America, in this chapter we note that public engagement is often mostly about legitimating predefined plans and policies, narrow technical discussions that malign the inherently political nature of forest management, and participants that are not representative of the general public. To move beyond these challenges, we propose several changes, including technological innovations such as web-based and emerging social media platforms and institutional innovations such as episodic and punctuated modes of engagement that are part of an overall participation plan.

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