Coordinated Resource Management

Coordinated Resource Management (CRM) is a stakeholder consensus decision-making process. Stakeholders are any interest with a stake in the consequences of the decision. In this process, the stakeholders make decisions by consensus, rather than by traditional voting and majority rule.

Consensus, as defined by various CRM practitioners, means, “The group makes decisions collaboratively.There is no voting, and everyone had to be able to live with the decision–discussion continues until they can.Although all participants may not agree 100% with all aspects of the decision, all participants support the whole decision 100%.”

The CRM process helps people manage natural resources in a productive, environmentally-friendly, and economical manner, for the long term. It is a coalition-building process which involves those using the resources in the decision making about those resources. Thus, CRM integrates local wisdom and technical expertise, while taking advantage of group synergy. Indeed, some CRM teams have been initiated solely as “brain trusts” to reap the benefits of diversity and group creativity.

One particularly appealing aspect of CRM is that it complements any regulatory process, such as NEPA, and responds to the plethora of recent mandates to incorporate the public in decision making. The process also fulfills the intent of the “Sunshine Laws,” to include all interests when making public policy decisions. In today’s environment of government devolution, CRM is ideally suited as a process for local decision-making.

The CRM process is ultimately flexible. It works at a variety of scales and on a variety of issues. While the CRM process historically has been used to develop natural resource management plans or to resolve natural resource use conflicts, we are learning that the principles of CRM apply to other types of conflict resolution and to human resource management, as well. As a result, we are beginning to see the principles of the CRM process applied in the workplace, to community development issues, and to a variety of dispute resolution situations.