Step 1
Read/skim the article from Orion Magazine The People’s Forest, (https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-peoples-forest/) that narrates a story about the Menominee Nation, an indigenous people in the Great Lakes region who currently live on or near the reservation outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin and who have been managing the forests of their remaining ancestral lands. The article covers perspectives on forest management, ties to ancestral lands, thoughts on global change including climate change, and collaboration between the Menominee and scientists from Penn State University studying climate change impacts on Menominee Nation’s forests.
The purpose of reading/skimming this article is to motivate us to think about cooperation among different groups, with different world views, to think about and adapt to climate change in forest ecosystems.
Step 2
Now, do some research (online or through personal experience, expertise) to identify an example of collaboration among different groups with different backgrounds/perspectives, working together to tackle forest management issues in the context of global change. These can be climate issues, governance, biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, broader elements of global change.
Please find an example that includes traditional, local, or community groups working with broader governmental agencies, e.g., community forests, tribal management, co-management, indigenous tenure, collaborative forest management. This can be in any forest area globally, e.g., Western Klamath Restoration Partnership (https://www.wkrp.network/) or DaMal Rainforest Complex. (https://globalconservation.org/news/global-conservation-mission-heart-borneo-sabah-malaysia/)
Compose a 300-400 word summary of your project/program, describing:
the location
general forest type
basic features of the collaboration, members of the collaboration
forest management/ecology issue being addressed (if many pick one)
brief summary, as your own perspective, describing one key ecological pattern, process/function being address with the collaboration and why it matters for the forest social-ecological system.