| This dissertation explores the question of whether agency-led initiatives can conform to collaborative principles. I examine different models of public policy and use a political ecology framework to help define/justify principles by which to evaluate collaborative initiatives. Consistent with the theoretical concerns of political ecology, which emphasizes the importance of examining contextual factors across multiple scales, I explore this research question using a case study research strategy. The Initiative for Accelerating Cooperative Riparian Restoration and Management serves as the case study. This represents a current, Federal-level, interagency (BLM, USFS, NRCS) strategy designed to facilitate cooperative riparian-wetland management. To gain a working knowledge of the day-to-day activities of the initiative and an understanding of the institutional context within which it operates, both critical to an effective evaluation institutional initiatives, I used a participatory research framework.; Results show that the principles underlying the riparian initiative reflect the tenets of collaboration. However, implementation activities often differed from these principles. Those implementation activities that conformed to the tenets of collaboration have demonstrated the most success while less successful activities failed to foster the type of social environment needed to facilitate collaboration.; One of the barriers to collaboration and large-scale success is the institutional context within which the initiative operates. Whereas the principles (if not all the practices) of the riparian initiative adhere to the tenets of collaboration, the underlying structure of land management agencies as bureaucratic institutions does not. Specifically, these institutions create an environment where the individual level characteristics (ownership, commitment, innovation) needed to ensure their success are not rewarded.; To increase the likelihood that agency-led, collaborative initiatives will be successful in the future, institutional structures must be transformed to ensure the creation of an environment where practices and behaviors that reflect collaborative principles advanced by agency-led initiatives are seen as accomplishments rather than risks. In addition to exploring these institutional issues, the conclusions discuss changes in the riparian initiative to bring practices more in line with tenets of collaboration that were made as a part of the ongoing participatory evaluation. |
