Forest planning and public participation: a possible methodological approach

Today public participation is considered to be an important element of forest planning. This paper illustrates a methodological proposal for integrating public participation in forest planning at a landscape scale. In order to present the conceptual context in which the proposal was elaborated and to make clear the reasons behind the current move towards public participation, I make an analysis of the significance, role and characteristics of participation in the management of natural resources based on experiences of the last decades as documented in international literature.