Lynne Koontz

Disparate Stakeholder Management: The Case of Elk and Bison Feeding in Southern Greater Yellowstone

For resource decisions to make the most possible progress toward achieving agency mandates, managers must work with stakeholders and may need to at least partially accommodate some of their key underlying interests. To accommodate stakeholder interests, while also substantively working toward fulfilling legal mandates, managers must understand the sociopolitical factors that influence the decision-making process. We coin the phrase disparate stakeholder management (DSM) to describe situations with disparate stakeholders and disparate management solutions. A DSM approach (DSMA) requires decision makers to combine concepts from many sciences, thus releasing them from disciplinary bonds that often constrain innovation and effectiveness. We combined three distinct approaches to develop a DSMA that assisted in developing a comprehensive range of elk and bison management alternatives in the Southern Greater Yellowstone Area. The DSMA illustrated the extent of compromise between meeting legal agency mandates and accommodating the preferences of certain stakeholder groups.

National wildlife refuge visitor survey 2012--Individual refuge results

So much of our natural habitat, environment and heritage have been lost, that to preserve at least some natural areas where these plants, animals, and land forms can continue to live and exist now and for the future is vitally important in and of itself as well as for future generations. If we lose whats left, we are all diminished. — Survey comment from a visitor to Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Incorporating institutional power into the disparate stakeholder management approach: a case study of wildlife management in the southern greater yellowstone area

Natural resource management decisions are complicated by multiple property rights, management objectives, and stakeholders with varying degrees of influence over the decision making process. Underlying institutional factors will give certain stakeholders a greater level of influence over the policy outcome. How a stakeholder uses their influence can greatly effect the decision making process. We utilized the Legal Institutional Analysis Model to account for stakeholdersʼ political power in the decision making process. We then extended the use of this model by integrating concepts from decision analysis and public choice economics into a single, comprehensive approach called Disparate Stakeholder Management. We demonstrate this new approach in this report through a case study concerning elk and bison management in the Southern Greater Yellowstone Area.