Improving cross-cultural knowledge exchange for collaborative forest stewardship

Collaborative governance arrangements help maximize adaptive potential in the face of rapidly changing environmental conditions affecting forest systems to achieve cross-boundary stewardship goals. In part, the success of these cooperative efforts stems from their ability to enable exchange or “bridging” across knowledge systems (e.g., Western scientific, local, and Indigenous). Bridging knowledge systems can generate new insights, overcome power imbalances, and contribute to a sustainable future. There is a growing recognition of the benefits of including Indigenous knowledge and community perspectives in environmental collaborations. Yet, there is a need for more context-specific insights to enable equitable collaborative governance and knowledge exchange with Indigenous Nations. To explore this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 forest stewards associated with state agencies (n = 12) and Tribal Nations (n = 10) in present-day Maine (U.S.A). We argue that while different knowledge systems are highly valued and respected by forest stewards, barriers including Western and Indigenous paradigmatic incongruities, inflexible institutional arrangements, and socio-political tensions limit cooperation. We recommend recognizing the inherent adaptability and sovereignty of Indigenous Nations, encouraging cross-cultural engagement at the outset of project planning, and establishing new institutions that embrace ‘two-way’ knowledge exchange. An awareness of these dynamics has the capacity to transform governance systems and improve forest stewardship outcomes.