Breaking Barriers Building Bridges: - ERI Library - Northern Arizona ...

40 CollaborationCo-management is a formal process with a focus on shared poweramong government authorities or between an agency and one or moreuser groups. Participation is limited to people with legal authorityand decision-making capacity. Co-management groups may developand analyze restoration proposals, develop and ratify legally bindingagreements, and share the decision-making process among a handfulof key stakeholders. Co-management can operate permanently ormay be developed to work for a specified length of time. The GrandCanyon-Parashant National Monument (GCPNM), for example, isco-managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the NationalPark Service.Partnerships are generally long-standing and place-based groupsthat serve to identify issues, gather information, generate managementoptions, and develop recommendations for restoration projects withina specified geographic area. Participants usually represent an agencyor special interest group, but non-aligned citizens may also participate.As with planning committees, partnerships usually do not havedecision-making authority, but their suggestions are influential andare often adopted by agency personnel and government authorities.The Parashant Partnership is an example. The BLM and NPS, who asmentioned before co-manage the GCPNM, have invited the ParashantPartnership to collaboratively develop management recommendationsfor areas within the GCPNM.Each type of collaborative group may decide to formalize aframework for governance to guide planning efforts. Initial steps caninclude identifying additional participants, establishing ground rulesfor interaction, clarifying areas in need of agreement, determiningresource and funding sources, choosing appropriate meeting times andvenues, entering into memoranda of understanding, identifying needsfor information and technical expertise, and selecting independentfacilitators or mediators as appropriate. There may be subcommitteesfor each of these steps or the group may act as a whole.