With Hawaii's population growing and its forests shrinking, the potential for overuse of this natural resource is a challenge facing the State's policy makers and resource managers. This article examines the conditions necessary to entice members of a user group to voluntarily switch to alternatives. The user group consists of hula dancers, who gather plant materials in the forest foradornment lei on Oahu, Hawaii. The two alternatives to forest gathering were community gardens for which work time was required and commercial purchase at a given price. If the alternatives to forest gathering are made attractive enough, some hula teachers indicate a willingness to switch, while others do not. Policy makers may find it more cost effective to formulate policies that will make alternatives more attractive to user groups than to attempt to change their preference structure. The diversity found among the preferences of hula practitioners indicates that a variety of approaches should be considered. In the case of those not willing to switch, a more participatory forest management system could be examined that includes all user groups. For those willing to switch, programs that lower the labor intensity of the community garden and the price of commercial purchase have considerable appeal.

As the use of collaborative, consensus-based decisionmaking procedures increases, so, too, do the obstacles to using these processes. For example, many managers and decision makers are now encountering limits on the participation in such processes by key stakeholder groups. Indeed, perhaps one of the most difficult challenges an agency faces in undertaking a consensus process is in securing participation by appropriate stakeholders. In order to more effectively sponsor and manage collaborative decisionmaking processes, an understanding of the incentives for stakeholder participation is critical. A recent study of negotiated rulemaking at the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) assessed participants' incentives for participation, which revolve around four major themes: (1) resources required for participation, (2) input into final decision and response to comments, (3) use of technical data, and (4) representation and communication issues. Keeping these incentives in mind when initiating a collaborative regulatory process may assist managers and sponsors in ensuring inclusion and participation by key participants.

While few programs have been created to satisfy the need for environmental managers, one promising development is that the environment has become a legitimate topic in graduate business programs. With the intent to provide information to schools of business as they integrate environmentally related subjects into their curricula, a questionnaire was sent to 1,200 active members of the National Registry of Environmental Professionals (NREP). A 20% return rate was obtained. Half of all respondents report that students are inadequately prepared; 85% said MBAs are inadequately prepared. Students get little practical experience, lack familiarity with business or management concepts, and are unfamiliar with principles of project management MBAs lack requisite scientific or technical background. Work experience is considered important and 90% of all respondents indicate an internship counts as work experience but only 50% say their organization provides internship opportunities.

In recognition of the limitations of strict, objective, instrumental decision making, government agencies, businesses, communities, and environmental groups are beginning to use concepts of participatory democracy and social learning in planning and decision-making processes. Information and power are shared among affected interests so that decisions can be reached that are supported by all parties to the process. This collaboration engages parties in mutual planning and decision making. Providing a forum for discussion that permits diverse points of view to be aired leads to joint problem solving. An open dialogue can demonstrate that opposing parties may actually share certain interests. In an effort to determine some characteristics and common threads in collaborative planning and decision making, this study examined 76 cases of environmental management described as involving overlapping or competing interests. Many of the reviewed case studies offered evidence that the following basic elements of collaboration were included: the establishment of a formal organization, the sharing of information among all participants, the open discussion of all matters by all participants, and the sharing of power among all participants. Organization formation (86% of the cases) and information sharing (80%) appear to be fundamental to collaborative planning and decision making. However, power sharing (65%) and open discussions (54%) were indicated in fewer cases and are likely to be more difficult to achieve.

The links between transportation and the environment have a long history in the US-Mexico border region. Modern attempts to increase and improve transportation in the region have generated the need for reliable information concerning the border environment. To help meet this need, researchers at the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) created a unique resource for Border Region Information on Transportation and the Environment (BRITE). BRITE's purpose is to provide relevant environmental information to governmental and nongovernmental agencies, interest groups, and individuals working along the US-Mexico border. ATRI continues to build BRITE in segments specific to environmental media. BRITE is as much a process as a product and it will never be “complete.” This paper discusses how state and local planners as well as interest groups might best utilize the information available in BRITE to develop sound environmental policy to enable the region to promote sustainable transportation.

Habitat conservation planning has become the primary conservation tool for private landowners and developers under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Habitat conservation plans are newly evolving mechanisms and are challenged with addressing the conflicts and paradoxes inherent in integrating conservation and economic decision making. Research results of a 31-case analysis of habitat conservation plans (HCPs) are discussed to provide an objective understanding of the process through which HCPs are developed. A central finding is the significant variation in the ways HCPs have been developed, including who was involved, how decisions were negotiated, and how decision-making roles were designed and executed. The results also indicate that little attention has been given to HCP process design and management, and addressing this deficiency should be rewarding and challenging. Increased attention should be given to the roles of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other organizations and individuals. These roles relate to stakeholder contribution, rules of engagement and participation, process efficiency, and the management of technical information. The practitioners surveyed indicated that HCP processes have often been sluggish and/or problematic; nevertheless, they generally characterized HCPs in positive ways. This suggests a positive base from which to improve HCP processes.

Ecosystem restoration planning poses many challenges in deciding what the objectives of restoration will be and how to achieve them. Multiattribute utility choice analysis was used in this study to identify public preferences in Florida for restoration of the Everglades/South Florida ecosystem. The analysis utilized both structural (species populations) and functional (water levels and timing) attributes to represent states of the ecosystem in conjunction with other attributes to represent social tradeoffs in restoration planning. Statistical results on the relative weighting of different attributes indicated strong preferences for Everglades restoration were tempered by concern for the consequences of restoration decisions on municipal water users and agricultural landowners. Multiattribute choice approaches provide a framework to integrate the work of natural and social scientists in adaptive management of ecosystem restoration planning and to provide better information for resource managers about public preferences for different types and levels of restoration.

Malaysian environmental professionals were surveyed to determine their outlook on key environmental issues related to Malaysia and to the world. Learning about environmental perceptions from local decision makers was seen as important because of the rapid economic growth of Malaysia and because of concern that this development may result in the loss of a high-quality tropical environment. Study data should be useful in providing understanding of values relating to environmental management within the country. Results showed that air pollution and waste management were perceived of as key local environmental issues, with industrial air emissions and vehicular exhaust two of the major sources of local environmental degradation. Air pollution may be the more difficult of these problems to solve, perhaps conflicting with economic development interests. Loss of critical habitat, ozone depletion and climate change were viewed as important to global-scale environmental conditions, although habitat destruction was seen as somewhat less important to the local situation. River pollution was identified as the major ecological problem in Malaysia, although drinking water quality was not seen as a critical issue. Malaysian environmental professionals' perceptions of global-scale environmental problems are consistent with much of the international environmental community, knowledge that should be helpful in negotiating future international agreements.