Abstract

Summary This paper outlines a decision-making framework which seeks to clarify the mechanisms through which the community can control the decision-making process that governs the management of publicly owned forests and other areas of public wildland estate. The model outlines a process of conflict management which is based firmly around the related goals of achieving effective social communication and developing possibilities for real social choice. The major criterion that this decision-making framework sought to meet was that it should produce resource management decisions that were regarded as legitimate by all groups with an interest in particular resource management issues. To meet this criterion, the model has two essential characteristics: • It embodies elements of participatory design which allow the planning and decision-making process to respond to all the values and interests, in particular resource management issues. • It recognises that the evaluation and weighing of social values that is at the heart of the resource management decision-making process should be located in the political rather than the administrative arena.