There is a general consensus that the rate, efficiency, and effectiveness of linking research to decision making must be enhanced. Many reports have touched on this issue, but very few documents provide details or assign responsibility to drive the interactions that most agree should happen. As a result, many natural science programs ‘‘talk the talk’’ but few ‘‘walk the walk’’. In this paper we will review the cultural conflict that underlies disagreements about collaborative research, offer details on the basic ingredients required to achieve a minimum standard for collaborative research, suggest an approach for determining the appropriate level of support for collaborative research and recommend specific steps for motivating scientists and stakeholders to participate in collaborative research.
The Consensus Building Institute has worked in a number of situations in various parts of the world where the goal has been
to promote collaborative environmental management. Bringing contending interests into a productive dialogue, however, when there is a substantial level of scientific or technical uncertainty as well as strong political cross-currents, works best when the stakeholders involved take an adaptive management or an adaptive governance approach. That is, they have to work together to specify the uncertainties involved in managing a complex ecosystem as well as human-ecosystem interactions, and organize to take a series of small steps, closely monitor the results, and make ongoing adjustments in policies, programs and everyday behavior. CBI has pioneered the practice of joint fact finding (JFF) as the key to collaborative environmental management.
In the attached article by Kalle E Matso, Molly O’Donovan Dix, Benjamin
Chicoski, Debra L Hernandez, and Jerry R Schubel that appeared in the
Journal of Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management — Volume
4, Number 3 in April 2008 you can trace CBI's impact on collaborative
environmental management. Through our field-based efforts to promote
adaptive environmental management and our theory-building work on the
techniques of joint fact finding, we have helped to shape the field of
environmental planning.