Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
PART III
Power: Politics, Governance,
and Planning
John C. Bliss and A. Paige Fischer set the stage for thinking about the ways that mem-
bers of the broader society can participate in ecological restoration, through their roles
in civil society, as landowners, as laborers, and as community members. Central to
their discussion is the concept of tenure, and the formal and informal arrangements
that control people's access to land. While often invisible, tenure, nevertheless, influ-
ences the opportunities people have to interact with land and, ultimately, affects the
possibilities for human involvement in restoration. As David Brunckhorst next ex-
plains, restoration takes place within a context of policy (formal rules governing the
interactions between people, land, and resources), politics (informal and formal con-
tests and negotiations about power), and property (legal title to land). In many cases,
ecological restoration is stymied due to the barriers created by the interplay of these
three power arenas. Nonetheless, Brunckhorst argues that innovative policy, political,
and property arrangements can actually aid the development of ecological restoration
at larger scales and longer time frames than is possible under traditional settings.
The policy context for restoration of federally owned forestlands is the focus of
Jesse Abrams's case study. In it, Jesse examines the emergence of new policy mecha-
nisms that allow local communities to more meaningfully engage in ecological resto-
ration on local public lands. This example from rural Arizona illustrates the changing
role of both public land managers and traditionally resource-dependent communities
in crafting new relationships between people, communities, and public forests. In the
concluding chapter, Mark Buckley and Ernie Niemi examine how climate change
will affect the future work of planners and restorationists. Using the example of the
Puget Sound Partnership, a Washington State agency dedicated to restoring the Puget
Sound by 2020, they discuss the risks and uncertainties that climate change presents
and suggest ways to plan restoration projects that will be successful and sustainable
into the future.
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