In evaluating effectiveness for collaborative environmental governance arrangements, a key concern is describing not just the processes and actors that are a part of these systems, but also the impacts that these processes have on ecological and social conditions. Existing research delineates an emphasis on process variables over outcome variables, as well as the difficulties of demonstrating causal relationships between collaborative governance processes and ecological outcomes. In this paper, we examined how process and outcome criteria are used by sponsors, industry practitioners, and participants of collaborative environmental governance (CEG) arrangements in Canada’s forest sector to ascertain effectiveness. We explicitly sought evidence from sponsors and industry practitioners of self-described effective forest advisory committees, anticipating that sponsors or practitioners might place greater emphasis than participants on outcome criteria over process criteria. We analyzed data from a nation-wide survey of forest advisory committee participants, conducted interviews with sponsoring agencies, and completed two in-depth case studies. We found that sponsors and industry practitioners, like participants, perceived a strong relationship between process and effectiveness. The perspectives of all participants helped us articulate ten key process criteria that they determined as essential for CEG. By including the insights of sponsoring agencies, our study provides both on-the-ground and management interpretations of process and outcomes as well as a nuanced approach to understanding the relationship between the two. However, we conclude that systematic evaluation approaches involving outcome-based criteria are still necessary and would provide a clear step towards encouraging accountability in CEG decision-making, both for sponsors and members.

中文翻译：

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过程使完美：对协作环境治理有效性的看法

在评估协作环境治理安排的有效性时，一个关键问题是不仅要描述作为这些系统一部分的过程和参与者，还要描述这些过程对生态和社会条件的影响。现有研究强调过程变量而非结果变量，以及证明协作治理过程与生态结果之间因果关系的困难。在本文中，我们研究了发起人、行业从业者和加拿大森林部门协作环境治理 (CEG) 安排的参与者如何使用过程和结果标准来确定有效性。我们明确地从自我描述的有效森林咨询委员会的赞助商和行业从业者那里寻求证据，预计发起人或从业者可能比参与者更重视结果标准而不是过程标准。我们分析了森林咨询委员会参与者的全国调查数据，与赞助机构进行了访谈，并完成了两个深入的案例研究。我们发现赞助商和行业从业者与参与者一样，都认为流程和有效性之间存在密切关系。所有参与者的观点帮助我们阐明了他们认为对 CEG 必不可少的十个关键流程标准。通过包括赞助机构的见解，我们的研究提供了对过程和结果的实地和管理解释，以及一种理解两者之间关系的细致入微的方法。然而，