This thesis examines how stakeholder values should be clarified in consensus-based
processes in order to provide the framework for the generation of options, the collection of
technical information and the assessment of options. The specific context is forest land use
planning in British Columbia, particularly with respect to creating protected areas. A case study
approach was used.
The case study used was the Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Development Strategy
Committee planning process (begun in January 1991). This particular case study was chosen
because it was the first effort to use negotiations to provide advice to the provincial government
on a regional sustainable development issue. It was also highly contentious and very public,
therefore it is reasonably well-documented.
One of the major flaws in how options were generated and assessed in this process was
that insufficient time was spent clarifying stakeholders' values and underlying interests. This had
repercussions throughout the negotiations. The problem was not well-defined and this meant it
was difficult to generate options that met stakeholders' objectives. Option generation was hasty
and was rooted in the status quo. In addition, technical information was collected at the
beginning of the process, before objectives were clarified or options generated. This meant there
was not a clear idea of how the information would be used to support the decision-making, and
resulted in reports heavily loaded with descriptive information. Assessing the options generated
was also subject to flaws: the first was that the analysis was based on values that were largely
implicit and came primarily from technical experts. The second was that the status quo (the
current state of conditions) was used to assess the impacts of proposed options. This led to the
consistent overestimate of jobs losses caused by the reduction in harvest level associated with
withdrawal of forest land from the commercial land base. Despite these difficulties, this process
greatly increased stakeholders' understanding of both the technical issues involved and the
difficulties of governing.
The social learning aspect of the process is an important legacy and may make future
decision-making processes in the area easier. However, improvements in the generation and
assessment of options are needed to improve negotiations.
Importantly, the problem needs to be well-defined and well-structured. To achieve this,
the objectives hierarchy approach is promoted here. It is relatively simple to use in practice, and
forces stakeholders' to examine their values and underlying interests. This means that they are
more able to generate options that. meet these. interests (rather than their well-entrenched
positions). To help move beyond the status quo to create imaginative options, it also useful to
ask stakeholders to think about how to achieve their objectives.
Once objectives have been clarified and imaginative options have been generated, then
the technical information required to assess options can be identified and collected. This leads to
the collection of more functional, and less descriptive, information which will be more useful to
inform the decision-making. When assessing options, uncertainty in the data, and implicit
judgments by technical experts should be made explicit and bounded with probabilities. This
improves confidence in the data. Lastly, the base case, which incorporates current trends and is a
more reliable predictor of future conditions than the status quo, should be used as a basis for
comparing options. It is especially important to consider the effects of declining rates of
employment due to mechanization and the fall-down effect in the base case scenario, in order to
get a more realistic estimate of the true jobs losses due to reduced harvests, with and without land
withdrawals. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/3654 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Hart, Denise Norma |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 4224418 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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