ABSTRACT
By requiring collaboration through implementation and monitoring, the Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFLRP) broadens the bureaucratic accountability systems associated with representative democracy so as to include the collaborative groups involved in the implementation and monitoring of landscape-scale restoration projects. As such, the program brings up questions of how multiple and overlapping agency and collaborative accountability systems interact, and how participants navigate these demands. This chapter responds to two key questions: 1) What tensions arise in collaborative public lands management between bureaucratic and collaborative accountability systems; and 2) What are the ways in which collaborative groups and their members navigate these tensions? We find that the key tensions between these systems are related to turnover, bureaucratic procedures, and capacity limitations. We identify mechanisms that soften the key tensions – building relationships, listening for understanding, including all voices in decision making, engaging in effective communication, and fostering group education. These relational accountability activities can soften some of the barriers and tensions that can emerge between the collaborative and the bureaucratic accountability systems.
