Dimensions of ecosystem management: a system approach to policy formulation.

Abstract

For the past sixty years, ecologists have been arguing about what an ecosystem is, and the debate continues (Blew 1996; Lenz and Haber 1996). Ecosystem management, however, is an entirely human process that entails not only manipulating and protecting ecosystems but also making private and public goals operational within a larger social environment of public needs, desires, and laws. Since many of the benefits people wish to derive from ecosystems (Table 1) are incompatible, conflicts over natural resource issues are rampant, especially in the Pacific Northwest (Curtis and Carey 1996). In this article, I present a brief overview of some of the societal and technological sources of conflict while examining three dimensions on which policy makers, in attempting to manage conflict, can evaluate ecosystem management proposals. Those three dimensions are intervention, general sustainability, and intentionality.

Citation

Carey, A.B. 1998. Dimensions of ecosystem management: a system approach to policy formulation. In: Calhoun, J.M., ed. Forest policy: ready for renaissance. Seattle, WA : College of Forest Resources, University of Washington: 261-273