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A Guidebook for Integrated Ecological Assessments pp 513–526Cite as

Ecological Assessments and Implementing Ecosystem Management: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Road Ahead

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Abstract

Ecosystem management is a recent policy alternative proposed to address a new generation of environmental issues characterized by greater sociocultural, political, economic, and biophysical complexity. For most ecosystem management efforts, scientific uncertainty and lack of data commonly are listed among the most significant stumbling blocks to success (Yaffee et al., 1996). As we move beyond the boundaries of the safe and known into the uncharted territory of ecosystem management, at both grand and small scales, the compass that science can provide to assist decision making is frequently the missing element (Lee, 1993). Ecological assessments are fundamental to ecosystem management precisely because they provide a tool pointing the way and giving direction to difficult decisions made in the face of great uncertainty (Lackey, 1998).

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  1. Richard A. Haeuber
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Northern Region, 200 East Broadway, Missoula, MT, 59807, USA

    Mark E. Jensen

  2. Institute of Alpine and Arctic Research, University of Colorado, 1560 30th Street, Boulder, CO, 80309-0450, USA

    Patrick S. Bourgeron

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Haeuber, R.A. (2001). Ecological Assessments and Implementing Ecosystem Management: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Road Ahead. In: Jensen, M.E., Bourgeron, P.S. (eds) A Guidebook for Integrated Ecological Assessments. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8620-7_36

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