Co-operation or capture? The paradox of co-management and community participation in natural resource management and environmental policy-making

Abstract

This article examines the conditions under which community-based management or co-management is likely to result in either (i) successful collaboration between a state agency and a local community or (ii) 'capture' of a public agency by private or special interests. The article focuses on the role of state agencies in the creation and maintenance of successful co-management regimes and discusses how state agencies can facilitate the creation of social trust while retaining independence and a concern for broader public interests. The author argues that a combination of bureaucratic autonomy and an effective, independent judiciary is an important institutional component for success. The argument is illustrated with the case of a co-management regime for salmon fisheries in the US Pacific Northwest.