Structuring contrasting forest stakeholders' views with the Strategic Options Development and Analysis

The study reported here aimed at presenting the structuring of a complex problem that emerges from contrasting perspectives of different stakeholders on the use and conservation of native forests in a context where regulations restrict their management, as occurs in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The methodology adopted in this work consisted both in the construction of a causal map, based on interviews with stakeholders of Santa Catarina native forests, and in the analysis of the map using techniques of the Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) approach. The analyses carried out indicated that the economic valuation of forest resources as well as the monitoring of forest cover are key issues for the management of Santa Catarina's native forests. In addition, the information generated by the causal map analysis can assist not only the process of designing innovative and all-inclusive policies for the management of native forests, but also the modeling process based on Systems Dynamics in order to evaluate the impacts of policies on the dynamics that govern the conservation and use of the resources of native forests. The adopted SODA approach also proved to be effective in structuring the complex problem situation addressed in this study. Keywords: Soft OR, SODA, Cognitive mapping, Atlantic Forest L'etude dont un rapport est presente ici visait a parvenir a structurer un probleme complexe emanant des perspectives contrastees de tous les differents intervenants quant a l'usage et a la conservation des forets d'origine, dans un contexte dans lequel les regles restreignent leur gestion, comme cela se passe dans l'etat de Santa Catarina, au Bresil. La methodologie adoptee dans ce travail consistait en la construction d'une carte des causes, basee sur des interviews aupres des intervenants des forets d'origine de Santa Catarina, et en une analyse de cette carte, utilisant les techniques de l'approche Developpement et analyse des options strategiques (SODA). Les analyses effectuees indiquaient que l'evaluation economique des ressources forestieres, ainsi que le controle du couvert forestier etaient des questions-cle pour la gestion des forets d'origine de Santa Catarina. De plus, l'information generee par l'analyse de la carte des causes est a meme d'aider, non seulement le processus de creation des politiques d'inclusion generale et innovantes pour la gestion de ces forets d'origine, mais aussi le processus de modelage base sur les dynamiques des syst