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 maintainance 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.