Chapter Four: Forces that Promote and Constrain Collaboration

Collaborative approaches to resolving disputes, optimizing resources, and engaging in joint decision-making are increasingly called upon in natural resources planning and management. Factors promoting a more widespread adoption of collaboration include recognition of the need for broader community and stakeholder involvement, accelerated loss of biodiversity, and changing conservation strategies. Four case studies of collaborative approaches to conservation in the Toledo District of Belize are presented in the following chapters, illustrating many of these points. The cases and the conclusions that follow them are structured around three central questions: