Social acceptability in forest and range management

Social scientists as well as natural resource managers have long been interested in how people understand, evaluate, and respond to the management of nature. Public acceptance has become increasingly critical to the success of forest and rangeland management as debate intensifies worldwide over ecosystem protection and sustainable development. Indeed, management strategies that lack such acceptance are unlikely to be implemented. Yet the diverse factors that determine social acceptability of forest and range management are only now beginning to be understood and given credence by natural resource professionals. In this chapter we synthesize research on social acceptability to describe the disciplinary origins, conceptual framework, and management relevance of the acceptability concept. Our intent is to help organize the critical thinking and research from the past 15 years and provide a basis for continued research in this important area. What is Social Acceptability? The social acceptability concept in natural resource management can be traced to the work of rural sociologist Walter Firey (1960). Firey wanted to know why certain resource policies persisted in different societies while others did not. He concluded that the adoption and retention of any particular program or policy depends on the extent to which it satisfies three requisites: It must be 1