2002 Socioeconomic Topics

1. 2002 Socioeconomic Topics Richard Haynes, Program Manager Human and Natural Resource Interactions Research Program

2. 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

3. 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

4. Assessing viability and adaptability of forest based communities Ellen Donoghue, Portland Forestry Sciences Laboratory

5. 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

6. 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 localitiesof varying sizes (250-115,000 people)

7. Communities in the NWFP Region

8. 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

9. 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

10. Assessing the acceptability of forest management practices and conditions George Stankey, Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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