Linking Ecosystem Health Indicators and Collaborative Management: A Systematic Framework to Evaluate Ecological and Social Outcomes
Although collaborative management has gained popularity across the United States as a means of addressing the sustainability of mixed-ownership landscapes and resolving persistent conflicts in public lands management, it has nonetheless generated skepticism because frameworks to assess on-the-ground outcomes are poorly developed or altogether lacking. The holistic ecosystem health indicator, a promising framework for evaluating the outcomes of collaborative processes, uses ecological, social, and interactive indicators to monitor conditions over time.