ABSTRACT
This essay draws on three decades of field projects that have featured stakeholder, community, and government agency engagement and collaboration in environmental and natural resource management situations. The field work has applied concepts and tools from the “Collaborative Learning” approach. The essay summarizes insights featured in a chapter in the 2015 Handbook of Environment and Communication. Following that discussion, the chapter presents four new insights gained from recent field efforts. The chapter concludes by looking ahead in two significant areas (1) climate change and locally led adaptation, and (2) in light of the 2020–2021 Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of virtual public engagement. Throughout the essay, the theme emerges that public involvement needs to be more than participation; collaborative efforts should engage people and communities.
