| A new BC organization---the Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA), was formed in 2003 to undertake and facilitate research and analysis initiatives that would inform and support an ecosystem-based approach to marine planning, marine conservation and marine resource use in BC. In this paper, an analysis of the literature around governance, collaboration, complexity, the role of science in society, and new thinking about resource management was undertaken to show that collaborations such as PacMARA might actually be better at asking and answering the questions needed to inform an ecosystem-based management approach. A new evaluative framework for science and research collaborations was also developed for this thesis and some illustrations of how it can be used are discussed here, looking at four similar organizations in Canada and the USA. The thesis concludes with recommendations for future work on refining the evaluative framework for use by others. |
