Converging on symbiosis: developing a collaborative framework for guiding successful United States Department of Defense conservation partnerships

Given the United States Department of Defense's (DoD) unique conservation responsibility, its natural resource professionals need a guide to frame interagency collaboration in a way that shapes productive partnerships. Our research examined successful DoD conservation partnerships to identify key success factors (KSFs), prominent challenges encountered, and how those characteristics enable the accomplishment of each stakeholder's objectives. We employed the multiple-case study method with 19 key informants from three DoD installations participating in semi-structured interviews. Documentation and archival records from the same installations provided additional data. We identified four themes of KSFs to enhance a partnership's ability to overcome four key groups of challenges that support achieving three main categories of organizational objectives. The culmination of our effort was the development of a collaborative framework to outline the main elements in the formation and maintenance of successful partnerships. We discussed strategies to implement this framework and recommendations for future research.