Sustainability issues for resource managers.

Abstract

Throughout their history, conservation science and sustainable-yield management have failed to maintain the productivity of living resources. Repeated overexploitation of economic species, loss of biological diversity, and degradation of regional environments now call into question the economic ideas and values that have formed the foundation of scientific management of natural resources. In particular, management efforts intended to maximize production and ensure efficient use of economic "resources" have consistently degraded the larger support systems upon which these and all other species ultimately depend. This series of essays examines the underlying historical, cultural, and philosophical issues that undermine sustainability and proposes alternative approaches to conservation. These approaches emphasize the relations among populations rather than among individuals; the integrity of whole ecosystems across longer time frames; the importance of qualitative as well as quantitative indicators of human welfare and sustainability; and the unpredictable and interdependent interactions among "natural," scientific, and regulatory processes.