Fishing for solutions : drawing lessons in the development of British Columbia's forest practices code
Date
1998
Authors
Moreau, Manon
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Abstract
When confronted with a problem, policy makers will search for solutions. Political scientist, Richard Rose describes this process as " lesson-drawing". For coastal BC, the fisheries/forestry interface is problematic and controversial. Fish habitat has often fallen victim to the province' s most important industry - forestry. This has occurred despite the Coastal Fisheries/Forestry Guidelines that were in place. With the arrival of BC's Forest Practices Code (FPC), hope was renewed that fish habitat would be protected through increased enforcement and improved riparian standards. To develop the FPC, the Ministry of Forests (MOF) approached BC ' s forest policy community for information, or " lessons." This thesis attempts to investigate what information was gathered from the policy community by the MOF in the areas of enforcement and riparian standards. To uncover this information, an analysis of government documents as well as unstructured interviews with key representatives were employed. This thesis also examines how the information gathered was affected by the motivations and strategies of the actors in the policy community, and how the information gathered was used. While the lesson-drawing process is described as a rational practice, political scientist David Brian Robertson argues that strategy and bias are inherently involved. Lesson-drawing is shaped by t he political environment in which it takes place . A polarized policy community with competing agendas resulted in a very diverse pool of information. This diverse pool of "lessons" enabled the government to choose among competing lessons in a politically profitable way.