RAPID: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Social Outcomes of Participatory Stakeholder Engagement Processes

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Participatory stakeholder engagement processes are increasingly recommended to help guide decision making about contentious and value-based natural resource management issues. These processes typically involve bringing stakeholders together through facilitated, open dialogue, which can then lead to the development of co-created solutions that incorporate diverse values. A growing body of literature suggests that these processes can result in numerous benefits, including enhanced stakeholder and public trust in decision-makers, increased learning and public acceptance of decisions, and reduced conflict between stakeholder groups. Few studies, however, have systematically examined the impacts of such processes on these social outcomes over time. This research addresses this gap in the literature by conducting an analysis of social outcomes from a participatory stakeholder engagement process being developed to inform wolf reintroduction into Colorado as mandated by passage of a state ballot initiative in November 2020. This marks the first time voters have decided to reintroduce a species in the U.S., providing an unprecedented opportunity to implement participatory stakeholder processes on wolf restoration and to evaluate their impact. The findings will directly inform natural resource management agencies and organizations about which aspects of stakeholder engagement processes are effective and why. Additionally, through this project, the research team collaborates with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to directly inform the adaptive management of the stakeholder process for wolf reintroduction in Colorado to improve social outcomes (i.e., trust, conflict reduction, acceptability) on this issue. Through repeated interviews and surveys of stakeholders and members of the public, the researchers examine how indicators of four proposed social outcomes of stakeholder processes change over time: 1) social learning; 2) public/stakeholder acceptability of management strategies; 3) trust in institutions; and 4) social conflict. To examine these outcomes, the team builds on existing literature by measuring trust, learning, and acceptability and also develops and adapts novel metrics of the social-psychological drivers of social conflict (i.e., perceptions of the in-group, out-group, and conflict context). This builds on the broader literature on conflict resolution in the specific context of natural resource management. In addition to the longitudinal analysis, the scholars examine stakeholder and manager perceptions of the process and compare them with longitudinal indicators of social outcomes. The research also contribute to the literature on stakeholder engagement processes by examining the extent to which learning from such processes diffuses to broader society, and whether this results in different social outcomes among additional stakeholders and members of the public with differing various levels of engagement. Specifically, the research examines how information from the stakeholder process on wolf reintroduction is shared with others and whether the same four social outcomes change among other stakeholders and the broader public.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.