title: Learning Through New Approaches to Forest Governance: Evidence from Harrop-Procter Community Forest, Canada.
abstract: Collaborative forest governance arrangements have been viewed as promising for sustainable forestry because they allow local communities to participate directly in management and benefit from resource use or protection. Such arrangements are strengthened through social learning during management activities that can enhance capacity to solve complex problems. Despite significant research on social learning in collaborative environmental governance, it is not clear how social learning evolves over time, who influences social learning, and whether learning influences management effectiveness. This study investigates how social learning outcomes change over time, using an in-depth study of a community forest in Canada. Personal interviews, focus group meetings, and participant observation revealed that most participants started engaging in community forestry with limited knowledge and learned as they participated in management activities. However, as the community forest organization became effective at complying with forestry legislation, learning opportunities and outcomes became more restricted. Our results run contrary to the prevalent view that opportunities for and outcomes of social learning become enlarged over time. In our case, learning how to meet governmental requirements increased professionalism and reduced opportunities for involvement and learning to a smaller group. Our findings suggest the need to further test propositions about social learning and collaborative governance, particularly to determine how relationships evolve over time.
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Rm 327 Kirk Hall, 117 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C8, Canada. Felicitas.egunyu@usask.ca.
authors.forename: Felicitas
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Egunyu
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Rm 327 Kirk Hall, 117 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C8, Canada. Maureen.reed@usask.ca.
authors.forename: Maureen G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Sinnott Building, 303-70 Dysart Road, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada. John.Sinclair@umanitoba.ca.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D016468:Forestry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D065928:Forests; D006801:Humans; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D000067570:Social Learning
keywords: Collaborative governance; Community forestry; Environmental governance; Forest-based communities; Social learning