The Ecosystem Approach: New Departures for Land and Water, Foreword

Abstract

The regulatory strategies of the past have failed to stop the loss of critical habitat, the collapse of commercial fisheries, and steadily diminished species. Despite these failures, some of the most visible and contentious conflicts over environmental protection have led to a potentially promising strategy that we are starting to call "ecosystem management." The hallmarks of an ecosystem approach are first, taking the ecosystem as the unit to be managed and regulated; second, using multiparty negotiations to involve a broader group of stakeholders than is typical of normal regulatory activities; third, integrating an adaptive management element, which addresses the dynamic biological and physical elements of natural systems; and fourth, creating an effort to create new regulatory tools better able to balance public and private rights, such as transferable development rights and "safe harbor" agreements.

Keywords: ecosystem approach, ecosystem management, adaptive management