Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Social Issues Fact Sheet: 11

Challenges to Collaboration

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-21-11-WWW

September 2006

Synthesizing

Scientific

Information

for Fire and Fuels

Project Managers

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

The Collaborative Mix

Bringing the right people into a collaborative process can be difficult. Potential

collaborators must all feel they have something to gain to justify investing resources, sharing knowledge, and perhaps compromising on goals and actions.

Wildland fire has the advantage of being a common enemy—fuels reduction is a

mutual goal around which players can communicate and establish trust.

Inevitably, though, there are challenges to collaboration. They generally fall into

three categories:

• Participatory capacity—the willingness of individuals to participate,

communicate, and follow through;

• Community capacity—the collective resources and skills within a community to support collaboration; and

• Institutional capacity—the rules and regulations, culture, and characteristics of an organization that affect its ability to collaborate.

Some of the common challenges that individuals, communities, and institutions

face in collaboration are:

Lack of resources. Potential participants share a concern about a lack of time,

dollars, or skills to fully participate in a collaborative process.

Lack of technical expertise. Managers, scientists, and citizens sometimes feel

they lack the education, experience, or training to participate. This perception

may apply to the project, such as fuels management, or the collaborative process.

Concerns about process. Citizens, environmentalists, and Federal land managers may not participate because they see the collaborative process as exclusive

or unfair. They might have concerns about the transparency of the process. A

transparent process is one in which interested members of the general public can

follow group activities, such as how the group frames problems, compromises on

issues, and prioritizes activities.

Inadequate communication. Communication can be a challenge at several

levels. When breaking into working groups, participants may inadvertently fail to

update the larger team on activities and decisions. Local stakeholders who are

not actively involved in the collaborative process may not feel that they are

being adequately informed about the team’s efforts and progress. On yet another

level, when team members representing agencies do not keep agency colleagues

informed about the team’s progress, agency support for the project might diminish.

Legal considerations. Federal land managers sometimes believe that laws or

regulations limit or prevent their participation. Private property owners may worry

Social Science Team Lead:

Pamela Jakes

USDA Forest Service

North Central Research Station

1992 Folwell Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55108

pjakes@fs.fed.us
that collaboration might require divulging natural resource conditions on their land, which could result in

new or additional regulations.

Potential slowdowns. Citizens have the power to question a public project and appeal decisions made during

the project, potentially slowing or even stopping it.

People who have had experience with such a project,

may not want to participate again.

Concerns about goals. Prospective participants may be

concerned about the way issues are framed and the resulting goals. Some may not buy into the project’s goals

as they are articulated. In addition, many contemplating

involvement may be concerned about whether the process will succeed in achieving individual, agency, or societal goals.

Concerns about trust. Some citizens resist getting involved because they may not trust other participants.

Concerns over constituency support. Local officials

may not participate because they believe that constituency support is lacking. Individuals who are asked to

participate as representatives of a group may not participate because they feel they lack the authority to act

on behalf of that group.

Though these challenges can be significant, it is important to remember that experience shows they are not

insurmountable.

Source

Sturtevant, Victoria; Moote, Margaret Ann; Jakes,

Pamela; Cheng, Antony S. 2005. Social science to improve fuels management: a synthesis of research on collaboration. Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-257. St. Paul, MN: U.S.

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Research Station. 84 p. Available online at http://

ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/viewpub.asp?key=3123 [2006, August 25]. For a hard copy, contact Pamela Jakes at

pjakes@fs.fed.us.

Additional Collaboration Fact Sheets

Challenges to Collaboration is one of a series of four fact

sheets on the topic of collaboration and fuels management. See also Benefits of Collaboration, Social Issues Fact

Sheet 9 (RMRS RN-21-9-WWW); Stages of Collaboration, Social Issues Fact Sheet 10 (RMRS RN-21-10-

WWW); and Keys to Successful Collaboration, Social Issues

Fact Sheet 12 (RMRS RN-21-12-WWW).

Social Science Team Fact Sheets

Look for fact sheet topics from the Social Science Team including information on developing personal responsibility for fuels

reduction, communicating fire hazard, topics for community

fire plans, guidelines for community education, and the “golden

rule” for communicating fire hazard to people.

Fuels Planning: Synthesis and Integration

This fact sheet is one in a series being produced as part of a

larger project supported by the USDA Forest Service to synthesize new knowledge and information relevant to fire and fuels

management. Fact sheets address topics related to stand structure, environmental impacts, economics, and human responses

to these factors. Information in the fact sheets is targeted for the

dry forests of the Inland West, but is often applicable across

broad regions of the country. For more information, please visit

our Web site at:

www.fs.fed.us/fire/tech_transfer/synthesis/synthesis_index

Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and Integration is an interagency research/management partnership to support the TenYear Fire Plan, led by Russell T. Graham, RMRS, and Sarah M.

McCaffrey, NCRS.

Communication can be a challenge on several levels. Keeping all participants and stakeholders informed of the team’s efforts and progress is

critical. Photo: V. Sturtevant