Accountability in Networked Governance: Learning from a case of landscape‐scale forest conservation

Despite incredible strides in transboundary collaborative conservation, many challenges remain. A networked governance approach recognizes a diverse pool of participants, linkages across multiple levels of organization and the diffusion of authority horizontally across spatial scales. Much is understood about the basic form and function of networked governance, namely the ways in which it overcomes weaknesses of traditional hierarchical structures, but less is known about the democratic quality of newer forms of governance. There are implications for traditional forms of accountability for the practice of network governance. They are not lost but their dimensions are changed, hinging less on punishment and more on reward. To examine this dynamic, we use a mixed‐methods approach and grounded theory to explore the social relationships that make up a conservation network in the United States and Canada. Interview analysis from the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent suggests that accountability comes through authentic engagement, is based on a ‘logic of appropriateness’ rooted in normative persuasion and still draws from traditional hierarchy. Social network analysis shows positions of brokerage and bridging help to maintain network connections between actors. Leveraging these characteristics of the network and the relationships formed through the process of landscape forest governance, we suggest there may be an overall net gain in accountability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment