Integrated Land Management of Low Capability Public Land in the Cariboo-Chilcotin
Emily Koopmans, MLWS 2021
Increasingly, expectations of social, economic, and environmentally conscious solutions are at the forefront of land management discussions. The reality is that conventional segregated approaches are unable to address all opposing resource user’s concerns adequately. Integrated land management, a landscape approach, seeks to rectify this divergence and attempts to accommodate the value and aspiration of all stakeholders into a biophysical public land-use plan. In the Cariboo Regional District of British Columbia, such an attempt occurred, albeit unsuccessfully, increasing tension and distrust between resource users. The potential benefits of such processes are comprehensible in the literature but would realistically require more equitable and sensitive strategies in practice. Simultaneously, a sound scientific foundation is necessary to advocate for environmentally sound practices. On public lands, there is a practical opportunity to harmonize cultural values with ecological protection and development through public lands grazing, especially on landscapes of marginal quality, as the opportunity costs remain low.
