Cooperative conservation could get nation working together again

By Luther Propst and Whitney Tilt

Sonoran Institute
Tucson, Ariz.

A collaborative approach to making decisions about land and natural resources moved a step closer to the mainstream in August at the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation in St. Louis.

Members of the Cabinet boosted expectations that federal agencies will become more cooperative and collaborative in their conservation activities and actions.

To succeed, this laudable goal will require deliberate effort to change the system of incentives for public land managers. As one federal official observed, "Instead of feeling the safe answer is 'no,' we need to be empowered to say 'yes.'"

However, participants came to St. Louis not to march in lockstep to a song already written but to explore ways to do a better job of conserving natural resources while fostering community development. Government officials and scientists mingled with community leaders, conservation advocates and many others. Those who arrived skeptical of the outcomes were willing to bet their time that something of value would emerge, and it did.

Conference participants brought together different experience and viewpoints to spend three days examining cooperative conservation.

They learned how landowners and wildlife interests can work together under the Endangered Species Act to protect private land values and imperiled wildlife. They learned how rural communities are working together to control the dangers of forest fires while promoting forest health. They learned about the challenges to this cooperative approach and how frustrating and time-consuming it can be.

Organizations like the Sonoran Institute, which have worked for years to promote collaboration in conservation, know well these challenges. They also know firsthand the potential rewards.

The conference's theme of cooperative conservation framed an approach that reaches back into history — that of working together to achieve a common goal.

While settlers of the American frontier met nature's challenges with individual hard work and personal courage, most discovered long-term tenure on the land required a hand from one's neighbors. Ranchers helped each other round up cattle, farmers helped other farmers harvest wheat before the crickets could, and neighbors gathered to raise barns. Unfortunately, the cohesiveness once represented by this neighborliness has fractured against a growing population, a decrease in tolerance for change, and a growing demand for natural resources — from timber, energy and water to wildlife, wilderness and recreation.

Cooperative conservation can help us return to working together – an effective strategy for protecting natural assets, including beauty, outdoor recreation and friendly small towns, that are now recognized as important for local economic prosperity.

As the conference convened, Hurricane Katrina landed on the Gulf States, providing a poignant reminder that natural assets like barrier islands and salt marshes are more than pretty places. They provide important protection from storm tides and floodwaters whose absence the country regrets when their natural functions are not available to protect human life and property.

With the catastrophic lessons of Katrina in the background, the conversations in St. Louis provided a primer for cooperative conservation in the 21st century – benchmarks on which this administration and others in the future may mark their progress:

• Elevate cooperative conservation from the accidental and exceptional, to the routine and expected.
  
• Connect federal and state programs to local stakeholders and communities to build long-term trust and stewardship – and enduring conservation successes.
  
• Make it easier for communities and landowners to identify and access new and existing federal programs that support cooperative conservation.
  
• Balance the needs for flexibility and adaptive management with the need for certainty.
  
• Strengthen the effective use of information – utilizing both empirical scientific research and local knowledge – for setting goals, monitoring progress and evaluating success.

We also need to dispel the myth that cooperative conservation will weaken and compromise the safety net of environmental laws and public land management policies. We must maintain, update and strengthen environmental laws and regulations. Without a solid regulatory shield to protect wildlife and the public interest, there is less incentive to invest the time in collaborative processes.

In calling for this conference, President Bush followed in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson who assembled conservation-minded individuals to focus on the challenge of conserving the nation's natural resources.

The Sonoran Institute and many others stand ready to assist public land managers, landowners and communities take the good intentions of the St. Louis gathering to the reality of making land and resource-use decisions that will shape our future.