Multi-Stakeholder Deliberation

Why is Deliberation Important for Adaptive Policy?

Adaptive natural resource policies need to accommodate the diversity and dynamics of local biophysical conditions, as well as the unexpected trajectories of preference and social response to change. This means that decision-makers should recognize the dimensions of diverse experience, knowledge and user needs. In a complex and rapidly evolving world, public deliberation provides access to diverse and innovative perspectives and helps ensure adaptive responses (Roberts, 2004).

The conventional approach to natural resource management policy has been to control certain factors so as to optimize the performance of the resource system. For example, we may want to optimize the production of timber and fibre from forests, or we may want to optimize the yield of grain from agriculture, or minimize flooding. Policies and interventions are designed sectorally. Interventions such as engineering infrastructure, fertilizers and other inputs, or land management practices are adjusted with this limited range of optimization targets in mind. However, our ability to predict the evolution of complex social-ecological systems is not very good. The boundaries and [Page 42]performance of ecosystems do not conform to those of single sectors or jurisdictions. Social priorities also shift with time, although fundamental values and interests tend to be more persistent (Walker and Salt, 2006).

For all these reasons, adaptive natural resource policies should be built on more than just careful data collection, scientific and technical analysis, and predictive modelling of key parameters—approaches that were discussed in Chapter 3. Multi-stakeholder deliberation provides a tool for engaging not only the opinions and values of different interests, but also different kinds of knowledge and different ways of knowing (Haas, 1992). The benefits of this approach are not purely instrumental: that is, this is not just about getting the policy ‘right’ or ensuring legitimacy. The outcome of deliberation is not abstract generalization, or discrete policy decisions, but meanings shared by the participants and narratives that engage their own accounts of success or failure (Forester, 1999). Participatory processes are not merely about being heard or about negotiation or about sharing evidence and building consensus on facts (although all these are important) but crucially about political identity, about values, about building social cohesion and competence, mutual respect, hope and capacity to act collectively. Such processes, though time consuming, have crucial transformative potential in creating new, shared vision that can motivate learning and policy adaptation. Building a sense of shared values and interests through public deliberation, particularly in a context of potential or real social conflict, is also helpful to prepare for the effective implementation of adaptive policies. Political theorists argue that the process of deliberation builds civic confidence, participation and trust in democratic governance, in addition to informing policy design (Delli Carpini et al., 2004).

...