Working Group Builds on Best Practices to Aid Conservation Policy and Resource Management
Agencies that foster
scientific knowledge exchange must maximize their effectiveness and societal
relevance in times of global change. A working group brought together
practitioners and researchers to review and develop evidence-based approaches to
knowledge exchange that support conservation policy and resource management
decisions.
An Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center researcher was
among the participants in a three-day working group focused on improving scientific
knowledge exchange to address land conservation and natural resource governance
challenges in Tennessee and the broader Southern Appalachian region, which are
anticipated to escalate as trends in global change continue to unfold. Experts
in watershed management, hurricane response and recovery, and ecological
disaster remediation engaged in discussion and shared their experiences of knowledge
exchange, including existing processes that are capable of meeting needs as
well as processes that are needed to meet future governance challenges. The working
group dissected successes and shortcomings of knowledge exchange models
intended to aid managers and practitioners as part of a participatory learning
approach to elevate researchers’ awareness of the social and technical
framework in which management decisions are made. The two ultimate goals of the
working group are to produce a published article on the working group’s
findings and to incorporate a variety of lessons into knowledge exchange with
planners and managers who must make important and timely science-based
decisions, such as foresters, disaster response agencies, and municipal
councils.
Pictured: Center ecologist Bjorn Brooks (back row, center) was among the working group participants. Photo by National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis.
Forest Service Partners/Collaborators: Forest Inventory and Analysis
External Partners/Collaborators: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
Contact: Bjorn Brooks, Ecologist, bjorn-gustaf.brooks@usda.gov
