Transcending Boundaries: The Emergence of Conservation Networks

Abstract

Over the past century, public land management has unfolded as a saga of tensions and challenges at the delicate interface of people and place. Many of these challenges test the endurance of our governing institutions. An institutional discovery process is unfolding with the emergence of new forms of governance – the rules and processes by which formal and informal groups of people make decisions regarding matters in which they have intersecting responsibilities and interests. Networks, collaboration, shared stewardship, and partnerships characterize these new forms of governance. These emergent collaborative endeavors are creating new bundles of ownership rights through easements, contracts, compacts, and cooperative agreements. Lying as a backdrop to the emergence of these new forms of governance are four policy and decision making puzzles. These include information challenges, incentive challenges, accountability challenges, and coordination challenges. Examining examples of network governance illuminate how they address these four decision making challenges and their implications for law, policy, and management skills.