Environmental Management: Principles and practice

BOX 9.2 How the ecosystem approach can advise the environmental
manager—three selected situations
Range management
what type of stock;
stocking rate;
the state of the range;
how to manage grazing rotation;
whether to augment with seeding or fertilizer;
potential threats;
parallel usage opportunities (recreation, conservation, forestry, etc).
Forest management
whether the forest trees are healthy and regenerating;
whether the mix of species is steady or in decline;
whether there are threats;
what harvesting is possible and how;
parallel usage opportunities (forest products, conservation, tourism, etc);
whether forest can be established/re-established in currently unforested areas.
Conservation management
whether conservation is viable in the long term;
what mix and number of species can be carried;
whether a cull or improvement in breeding is needed;
whether there are threats;
what parallel uses are possible (ecotourism, etc);
whether there are alternative ecosystems to provide back-up.
fine if the goal is to maximize production of a single product or service; it is less
satisfactory where the ecosystem yields several ‘products’ and it is important to
know hazards, limits and opportunities (see Box 9.2).
Two themes emerge from the literature: the first is a search for ways of
integrating environmental and socioeconomic planning, and the second to define
and bound areas (ecosystems) of interest and value to managers and planners.
Sometimes ecosystem boundaries coincide with clear physical features, e.g. an island
or a forest, but often they are less well delineated. Gonzalez (1996) noted the need to
define an ecosystem in 3-D, not just mapping area, but also ‘top’ and ‘bottom’. The
quest is for an ecosocioeconomic planning unit which is stable, clearly defined and
likely to support sustainable development. Comprehensive regional approaches began
to evolve in the 1930s and 1940s (mainly based on river basin ecosystems), and
there was interest into the 1970s. There have been attempts to integrate ecological
concern into regional planning and policy making (McHarg, 1969; Isard, 1972;
Nijkamp, 1980).

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ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT
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