Collaboratives, cooperation, and private forest ownership patterns: Implications for voluntary protection of biological diversity

The conservation of biological diversity, particularly on landscapes dominated by non-industrial private forests, usually demands explicit recognition of cross-boundary cooperation. This study investigates the spatial challenges faced by stakeholder-driven collaborative processes in achieving participation by landowners individually or collectively. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 37 landowners, collaborative participants and public employees led to the development of three scenarios from efforts along coastal Oregon to restore endangered Coho salmon. The scenarios illustrate success and failure in achieving conservation activities across multiple ownerships, and the importance of ownership patterns and their purposeful consideration to those outcomes. The findings indicate that the structure of the collaborative, and in particular, issues of representation, affect the accessibility to physical locations in the landscape. In developing or modifying similar collaborative efforts, ensuring access to important landscape features (i.e. critical habitat) must be a primary concern, if direct, voluntary landowner action is needed.