Co-Management of Natural Resource Management: Participatory Planning and Collaborative Approach

Abstract

In the face of dynamic and complex ecological, socio-cultural and economic processes natural resources are within, traditional planning approaches have fallen short in sustainable management of natural resources. Difficulties and risks thusly experienced have brought forward participatory planning approaches that are based on communicative actions in planners’ and stakeholders’ roles during physical planning and decision making processes related to natural resources. Though participatory approaches and applications are effort and time demanding, they produce functional and lasting solutions which satisfy the environmental, social and economic demands and needs of the stakeholders. In this article, notions which bring various parties together -like communication, coordination, cooperation and collaboration- for various reasons were explained first with a focus on the term of collaboration as it forms the basis of active participation. Then, the differences between traditional and participatory planning approaches were reviewed, and various levels of participatory decision-making processes were explained in terms of Arnstein’s participation ladder and expectations from/promises of participation. Within this framework, this article delivers information about (a) the collaborative natural resource management approach that provides active participation opportunity to stakeholders during decision-making processes related to natural resources, (b) phases of this approach, and (c) related collaborative processes and structures which can be used in various circumstances. The paper concludes by reflecting the implications for research and practice on collaboration in natural resource management. © 2016, Centenary University. All rights reserved.