Forest Policy

The purpose of the assignment is to give you the opportunity to apply knowledge gained in forest policy in critically analyzing a forest policy case study of your choice. Each student is expected to to identity a forest policy-related issue/problem within or outside public lands in the US or elsewhere and analyze it using insights from the policy sciences framework (Clark 2002) or the forest policy process model (Cubbage et al. 1993 or 2017). A 10-15 page final report is expected by Wednesday, December 2. The content of the presentation should cover the following areas, in addition to any relevant themes of your choice.

1. Introduction: Brief introduction of topic and justification of its relevance to forest policy; purpose of the analysis; standpoint/perspective used by the group; description of methods of data collection and analysis.

2. Description of problem context: Identification of the policy problem/issue; description of the social process/context (e.g. situation, participants, perspectives, base values, strategies etc.); and decision process/context (e.g. management authority, legislative guidelines etc).

3. Analysis of policy problem: History of decision-making and social processes that have contributed to the problem; other causes and consequences of the problem; future trajectories of the problem; opportunities and constraints for addressing the problem.

4. Recommendations: Clarification of goal(s) to address the problem; generation of alternative strategies for achieving the goal; criteria for evaluating alternative strategies; selection and justification of chosen strategy; specification of assumptions influencing the chosen option.

5. Conclusions and lessons learned: Summary of problem, goal, and chosen strategy; guidelines for successful implementation, monitoring and evaluation; lessons learned and recommendations on the role of forest policy analysis in enhancing the attainment of the common interest.