Embracing Value and Uncertainty in Environmental Management and Planning: A Heuristic Model‪.‬

Introduction Environmental management and planning in British Columbia (BC), as elsewhere, is becoming an increasingly challenging task. On the one hand, diverse citizen, stakeholder, and First Nations groups are demanding a much greater role in decision-making than they have in the past. On the other hand, a growing awareness of social and ecological complexity highlights the need for a more integrated analytical perspective. Inevitably, efforts to integrate this broader range of values and knowledge in management and planning create a need for more information, much of which is fragmented, difficult to collect, or does not exist. Shrinking budgets offer little hope of reducing uncertainty. Credible plans and necessary reforms are frequently not acted upon or are called into question. Conflict often seems unavoidable.