Motivations for the forestry industry to participate in collaborative ecosystem management initiatives Samuel D. Brody a, * , Sean B. Cash b , Jennifer Dyke a , Sara Thornton a a Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, 3137 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA b Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta, 515 General Services Building, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2H1 Received 1 March 2004; received in revised form 24 May 2004; accepted 27 June 2004 Abstract The role of industry participation in collaborative ecosystem approaches to management initiatives has received limited attention. We first review the literature describing the role of industry in ecosystem management (EM) collaborations, and present a framework for investigating the motivations for industry participation. In order to better understand the incentives for forest industry companies to participate in EM projects, we also conducted a survey of the 38 largest U.S. forestry companies. These companies collectively own or control over 50 million acres of land. Our survey results indicate that companies’ efforts to more effectively manage their resources, a desire for positive public relations that may result from EM collaborations, and the building of partnerships with other stakeholders are the most significant motivating factors. Personal satisfaction on the part of involved individuals and a perception that EM is an attractive alternative to litigation are also important incentives. Moreover, companies with larger resource management staffs are more likely to participate in EM collaborations, whereas the size of land holdings appears to be inversely related with the likelihood of participation. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Ecosystem management; Sustainable forestry practices; Timber and paper industries; Stakeholder participation; Public–private partnerships 1. Introduction In the United States, environmental managers and planners are abandoning the traditional species by species approach to regulation and instead are embracing the emerging paradigm of ecosystem management. Ecosystem management represents a departure from traditional management approaches by addressing the interaction between biotic and abiotic components within a land or seascape, while at the same time incorporating human concerns through stakeholder collaboration (Szaro et al., 1998). Because ecosystem management is by defi- nition a transboundary, interdisciplinary, multi-party issue, the participation of key parties becomes an 1389-9341/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2004.06.002 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 979 458 4623; fax: +1 979 862 1784. E-mail address: sbrody@archone.tamu.edu (S.D. Brody). Forest Policy and Economics 8 (2006) 123 – 134 www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol