Linking ecological and social scales for natural resource management

Abstract

Natural resource management has moved from a single disciplinary and one resource management approach to an interdisciplinary and ecosystem-based approach. Many conceptual models are being developed to understand and implement ecosystem management and forest certification initiatives that require an integration of data from both the social and natural systems (Vogt et al, 1997, 1999a,b). These changed approaches to natural resource management arose from a perception that variables critical in controlling the health and functioning of an ecosystem could only be determined by integrating information from both the social and the natural sciences (Vogt et al., 1997). However, it has been difficult to take many of the theoretical discussions and the frameworks or conceptual models that they have produced and to operationalize or put them into practice on the ground.

Citation

Vogt, Kristiina A.; Grove, Morgan; Asjornsen, Heidi; Maxwell, Keely B.; Vogt, Daniel J.; Sigurdardottir, Ragnhildur; Larson, Bruce C.; Schibli, Leo; Dove, Michael. 2002. Linking ecological and social scales for natural resource management. In: Liu, Jianguo; Taylor, William W., eds. Integrating landscape ecology into natural resource management. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Press: 143-175.