# Presentation: 842205

## 2002 Socioeconomic Topics

*Richard Haynes, Program Manager*
*Human and Natural Resource Interactions Research Program*

## 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*

## 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*

## Assessing viability and adaptability of forest based communities

*Ellen Donoghue, Portland Forestry Sciences Laboratory*

## 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*

## 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 localities** **of varying sizes (250-115,000 people)*

## Communities 

- Communities
- in the
- NWFP Region

## 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*

## 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*

## Assessing the acceptability of forest management practices and conditions

*George Stankey, Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory*

## 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*

## 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*

## 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*