Collaborative Learning And Land Use Tools To Support Community Based Ecosystem Management: A Final Report Submitted To The NOAA/UNH Cooperative Institute For Coastal And Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET)

This project developed a model conservation plan for local land use decision making that engaged diverse stakeholders in discussions about conservation values, ecosystem services and strategies to balance conservation and economic development. This locally focused action research case study tested the application of ecosystem based management (EBM), Collaborative Learning and land use technology tools to land use planning. Lessons learned were scaled up to create capacity building training for land use decision makers and coastal managers to increase interdisciplinary skills for implementing ecosystem based management. Collaborative Learning and EBM Tools were tested and evaluated for their contribution to implementing EBM in the context of local land use. EBM is a holistic approach to managing coupled ecological and social systems that incorporates the knowledge and perspectives of diverse stakeholders into a shared vision of desired future outcomes (Meffee, et al 2002). The long term goal of EBM is to sustain the provision of valued goods and services provided by ecological systems (MacLeod and Leslie, 2009). Community based ecosystem management (CBEM) shares the principles and theoretical foundation of EBM with an added focus on actions that make the places where people live, work and play noticeable better today and in the future (Meffe et al., 2002). The place-based focus of CBEM combined with the stakeholder engagement practices of Collaborative Learning provided an adaptable and practical framework for development of Headwaters – A Collaborative Conservation Plan for Sanford, Maine