It is well known that natural resource managers continually face challenges in responding to environmental issues and threats to our nation’s forests. Thus, there is a need for a structured approach to help these managers make these difficult decisions.
CRAFT (Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools), is a process that will improve the quality of these decisions by streamlining objectives and tradeoffs. CRAFT is designed to help groups understand the uncertainties that they face during the decision-making process.The CRAFT process includes the following solutions:
a simplified approach of identifying and clarifying objectives;
a way to gain a feasible set of alternatives;
an ability to match real-life problems to existing models and tools; and
a method of calculating the risks and tradeoffs associated with different management scenarios.
At its core, CRAFT relies on a system of using probabilities to capture and understand the relationships among objectives, actions, and consequences. Designed with planning teams in mind, CRAFT follows the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), however aspects of this method can be widely adopted by other audiences.
Read more about CRAFT in the Spring/Summer 2008 Issue of ForestThreatNET
