Value And Legitimacy Of Watershed Planning Partnerships

Former Sierra Club Chairman Michael McCloskey responds to research on watershed planning partnerships.

1 minute read

March 11, 2005, 5:00 AM PST

Former Sierra Club chairman Michael McCloskey has reviewed a new report, "Is Devolution Democratic? Assessing Collaborative Environmental Management", by William Leach at the Center for Collaborative Policy (CCP), California State University, Sacramento.

The report builds upon a 1996 essay by Mr. McCloskey (HCN 1/13/96), which launched a flurry of debate within the environmental community about whether consensus-based stakeholder negotiations are in the best interest of environmental organizations, the values they seek to protect, and democracy itself.

"Is Devolution Democratic?" purports to be the first attempt to empirically evaluate the arguments against collaboration, using a large quantitative study of watershed partnerships in the West. Mr. McCloskeys review and a response by Mr. Leach appear in the Winter 2004-2005 edition of the CCP online newsletter The Collaborative Edge.

Thanks to Laura Kaplan

FULL STORY: Collaboration vs. Cooptation: Michael McCloskey and Bill Leach Discuss Bill's Research on Devolution

Tuesday, February 1, 2005 in California State University, Sacramento

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