Beyond Polarization: Public Process and the Unlikely Story of California’s Marine Protected Areas

In a time when the United States is divided and positive collective action feels out of our grasp, Beyond Polarization tells a story of hope. That story goes back to 1999, when California passed a landmark piece of legislation to establish a system of marine protected areas off its coast that would safeguard miles of fragile ocean resources. After a contentious ten-year public process, passage of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPA) was considered nothing short of miraculous. As important as this achievement was, the legacy it left was even more enduring: a blueprint for successful public policy that can be replicated elsewhere. What lessons can we draw? California’s experience provides a rare opportunity to learn from a collaborative public process involving private interests and science-intensive decisions. Determined to do just that, Steven Yaffee, a renowned expert on negotiation and collaborative decision making, spent hundreds of hours researching the MPLA process in an effort to understand how California succeeded where other efforts have failed. The result is Beyond Polarization, a highly readable insider’s perspective on complicated decision-making processes and the strategic choices necessary for success. The book follows the initiative process region by region, each with its unique stakeholders and geographic concerns. These lessons can be applied to similar initiative processes across the country and world. Beyond Polarization presents an optimistic message about the public policy process in a time of civic division. It offers reassurance that, by using proven decision-making processes, policymakers, scientists, and local citizens can successfully collaborate to manage and protect natural resources we all have a stake in.

About the Author :
Steven L. Yaffee is Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan. He has worked for more than forty years on endangered species, public lands, and ecosystem management policy, and the design and management of collaborative decision-making processes. He is the author or co-author of five books.

Review :
"This book is an informative, inside perspective on the MLPA Initiative and goes into much more depth about the process than currently found in the peer-reviewed literature." -- "Ocean Yearbook" "Yaffee's text is personal, often journalistic and quirky .... the book also includes well-designed maps, useful tables, and 25 pages of notes."-- "Choice" "California's Marine Life Protection Act is part of California's long legacy of global leadership in ocean and coastal protection. The MLPA Initiative helped catalyze fundamental changes in the state's approach to managing ocean ecosystems, partnering with tribes, and addressing conflict. Yaffee's careful unpacking of this story provides a critical perspective on resource management and biopolitics."--Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary for Natural Resources "This is the best analytical case study of collaborative problem solving ever published. Yaffee's superbly written narrative stands out for its comprehensive, unbiased, bird's-eye view, as well as its insightful lessons learned. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about solving society's most pressing public-policy problems--together."--Rosemary O'Leary, Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas School of Public Affairs "Yaffee's vivid account centers the reader within the courage, intensity, loss, and triumph of the MLPA Initiative. This is a dispassionate, historic chronicle of a landmark ocean conservation effort and also a source of lessons about what enables multi-stakeholder public processes to succeed. Process and the people who engage in it are the protagonists of this epic story."--Meg Caldwell, Deputy Director for Oceans, David and Lucile Packard Foundation "California's extraordinary system of marine protected areas is the product of an equally extraordinary and innovative public-private partnership. By engaging scientists, policy makers, ocean users, and the public in a collaborative process, the state designed the first science-based network of marine protected areas in the United States. Beyond Polarization describes the challenges and lessons learned from this model effort and demonstrates how science can bring us together to protect and restore the ocean that sustains us."--Julie Packard, Executive Director, Monterey Bay Aquarium