Youth as the inheritors of collaboration: Crises and factors that influence participation of the next generation in natural resource management

Collaborative decision making is increasingly common in natural resource management. However, the current and future involvement of youth in resource management, as well as the ways in which crises affect youth, have been poorly addressed. This article contributes to partially filling this gap by analyzing youth involvement in resource-extraction activities and collaborative opportunities regarding fisheries and forestry in Uruguay and Canada, respectively. Our findings show that social, ecological and economic crises affect the viability and attractiveness of these resource-based activities, and crises also trigger collaborative approaches to management. Even though adult community members highlighted material dimensions of wellbeing when referring to their expectations for the youth, subjective components including values and cultural identity seem to affect the way in which the youth connect with the fishery and forestry. Young fishers in Piriápolis (coastal Uruguay) are attached to the fishery and they will likely become engaged in fisheries co-management in the future. In contrast, many questions remain around the involvement of First Nations youth in forestry in Northwest Ontario (Canada), potentially due to factors relating to incentives, leadership, and wellbeing. Our research indicates that there are various adult expectations of youth, and that youth engagement will continue to be an important question for the futures of fisheries and forestry management in our study areas. Additional research should investigate youth perspectives regarding their participation in collaborative management in order to better understand the future of the inheritors of collaboration and guide policies accordingly.