Collaborative Watershed Management: A View from the Grassroots

To date, research on collaborative watershed management has paid scant attention to the role of grassroots stakeholders, who are the people that actually use natural resources. This paper argues cooperation from grassroots stakeholders is necessary for the success of collaborative management, and outlines three theoretical perspectives to explain cooperation. The validity of these theoretical perspectives is tested using a survey of farmer participation in the Suwannee River Partnership in Florida. The findings suggest farmers’ perceptions of policy effectiveness are largely driven by economic considerations, while participation in collaborative management is linked to social capital.