Fostering sustainable development and research by encouraging the right kind of institutions

Abstract

From the perspective of institutions, sustainability is a set of values for how ecosystems are used. From this perspective, for institutions to foster sustainable development and research, the institutions must reflect the proper set of values. If the current values of institutions are not focused sufficiently on sustainability, it becomes necessary to know how institutions change their values.

One initiative which has been intended to change the values of institutions is role-exchanges between scientists and fishers. These initiatives have great value because they foster better communication and respect between groups with different traditions. However, it would be a retrograde step to use these role-exchanges as a vehicle to create wholly egalitarian roles for fishers and scientists. The improved communication and respect for different traditions of knowledge should be the basis for a new synthesis of science and the unrecorded knowledge fishers have of ecology. It has not been easy for institutions, and the people who constitute them, to gain respect and understanding for other ways to knowledge, nor has it been easy for them to change their values as individuals and institutions. However, in the past few decades we have seen both the civil rights movement and the women’s movement make great strides on this path. We should view these as precedents, study them, and learn from them how to change the values of our institutions to reflect values of sustainability, and foster excellence in all the people and groups — scientists, managers, users — associated with the institutions either as members or as clients.