The Future Has Other Plans: Planning Holistically to Conserve Natural and Cultural Heritage (Applied Communication)

The Future has other Plans, Planning Holistically to Conserve Natural and Cultural Heritage.Jonathan M. Kohl and Stephen F. McCool2016 Fulcrum PublishingThe authors of a book matter; and these authors matter, including Dr. Sam Ham the applied communication series editor. I have met and am an admirer of these consummate professionals and academics. Mr. Kohl comes from the perspective of a professional practitioner who has been fighting battles trying to make significant, lasting positive change in the management of protected areas around the world for decades. My impression of him which comes out in this book is that key to the success of any major planning effort is personal and organizational integrity. Integrity I think is the underlying theme of this book in the sense that professionals and the planning process they lead must be in the state of being whole and undivided. In that sense this book is a bit like a self-help book for planners who are dedicated to making a real and meaningful contribution to the stewardship of our natural and cultural heritage. To achieve a community’s or protected area’s desired future means that planners must have must first start with ourselves. To that end this publication calls on the visionary work of Ken Wilber and his Integral map and Dr. Tam Lundy and her work in human and community development and Dr. C. Otto Scharmer and his leadership “Theory U” and applies these theory laden frameworks to protected area planning and implementation. This is the book’s strength and weakness. Weakness only because you may think you need to believe these theories as strong foundations to build a successful plan on. I would say you do not need to believe these theories but instead trust the experience of the authors. They are passing on on wisdom and the theories provide a structured way to understand this wisdom.Those of us who have been in the field of managing protected areas have seen so many plans produced, but never implemented, so much infrastructure built, but never maintained, so many consultants come and then go, leaving nothing of value, and so many sad failures. I have no doubt that this book provides the critical human guidelines for success. Planning is primarily a social enterprise. The book touches on some technical aspects of recreation/protected area planning but this is not the emphases of this publication. While the private sector and most government planning agencies have moved beyond the long-range rational plan as a technical process to more strategic and lean process full of opportunities for learning and emergent strategies, public land use plans are trapped in the past with a very academic perspective. Consequently most of these plans are never implemented because by the time they are done the future has moved on or they never gained the level of public support needed for their implementation. Most other protected area planning books like “Managing Protected Areas; A Global Guide” are more a collection of best practices and tools this book is about the necessary relationships and mindset needed before any of these practices can be successful. If protected area planning and management is a tree, this book is about what is going on below the ground that allows the tree to flourish. That below ground invisible aspect is often what is most neglected and yet it’s the most important part of planning. In the end the authors propose the solution as being “holistic Planning”. They provide some principles and an outline for that would be but do not go into detail. I read this book over two weeks and felt enriched but wanting more. This is not the fault of this book because I think this ‘more’ is another book that addresses the how and what of Holistic planning means on the ground.I highly recommend all students and professional involved in public land management planning and management read The Future has other Plans. I was very excited to see this book in publication, mostly because to write and publish a book on this topic that steers away from the dogmatic past is a major and welcome undertaking. This is part of a great positive change that we desperately need in our times.

Although this book is addressed to heritage management planners, anyone who works in any of the management/development fields which involve a diversity of stakeholders will benefit immensely from reading this. Kohl and McCool present an easy-to-read and engaging narrative on why many prevailing paradigms are failing to spark the positive change that practitioners are striving to create and illuminate a promising way forward toward the evolution of not only management organizations and methodologies but also our own consciousness as individuals and planners.

Absolutely Fantastic book outlining the changes we're seeing and need to see in protected areas management practices on a global scale

Well researched, with plenty of real world examples, The Future Has Other Plans, articulates well why so many planning documents for natural and cultural sites around the world end up just collecting dust. I remember completing my first public use plan for a protected area in Nicaragua and my excitement for how this document will save the biodiversity and benefit the surrounding local communities, finally we did it! I was with a group in Akumal with hundreds of tourists swimming with/harassing sea turtles and remarked to local NGO staffer, you need a public use plan/visitor management plan. He replied enthusiastically "we already have one!". Similar experience in Cabo Pulmo - "we already have a public use plan!". Obviously our current methodology is not working and Jon and Steve clearly show us why it is not, and how we need to move forward to become effective planners/stewards. Particularly relevant for me was the different consciousness/worldviews, or how I interpret it as different values in different stakeholder groups. How two very different value systems (stakeholders) can agree on a particular strategy/action/etc. for entirely different reasons, are aware of these differences, and it is perfectly acceptable and moves the process forward in a much more open, perhaps enlightened manner/shifting worldview paradigms. If you have been frustrated with lack of implementation of planning documents and wonder why, this is a must read.

A brilliant treatise on conservation planning, explaining how it has evolved, why it almost never works and how to get those plans that you are involved with implemented. Drawing from catchy metaphors and grounded by the fundamental social theory needed to understand why a society acts to promote common good or raises barriers to reject externally imposed (but well meaning) guidance. A thought-provoking and valuable guide for anyone trying to work within a social system – yes even for scientists working to restore natural capital and ecosystem services. You will see why so many plans fail and presented with a framework for navigating the most common barriers to success. What the authors provide, however, is no easy path to success, but sensible planning through thoughtful inclusion and a daunting amount of work required in the social domain to achieve success. But beware, even if you achieve success it is only temporary and continued success will need your (or other’s) consistent attention.