Journal Article

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10535/5

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Advocacy, Science, Policy, and Life in the Real World
(1997) Baskerville, Gordon L.
"Disruption of the structure and function of ecological systems constitutes a set of major problems for contemporary society. It is straightforward to conclude that the actions of humankind that create these problems are improperly, or insufficiently, informed. By that, I mean the problems were not created with malice aforethought, but rather were/are largely the result of inadequate reflection before action. In areas with which I have some familiarity, this inadequacy appears to derive primarily from two sources: (1) weakness of models (of the mind or in a computer) used to create the forecasts that underlie the design of management of forests and of related environmental systems, and (2) insufficient attention to, or impossibility of following, those forecasts during implementation. People do not make dumb choices, so much as they choose from among dumb forecasts and/or make insufficient effort to ensure that the actions are invoked to 'cause' the chosen forecast to happen."
Ecology, Ethics, and Advocacy
(1997) Peterson, Garry D.; Pope, Shealagh E.; De Leo, Giulio Alessandro; Janssen, Marco A.; Malcolm, Jay R.; Parody, Jennifer M.; Hood, Greg; North, Malcolm
"Anthropogenic global change is radically altering climate, mineral cycles, land cover, and biotic communities (Turner et al. 1993, Vitousek 1994). These changes ensure that everywhere on Earth is affected by human actions. In some areas, such as the center of large cities, human transformation is near absolute, whereas in other places, such as remote parks, human influence is felt chiefly through the alteration of global cycles. However, no place is free from multiple, confounded human impacts. Consequently, ecological studies, whether they attend to or not, are partially studying the impact of anthropogenic change. "Ecologists cannot ignore these changes. First, ignoring these changes will produce flawed science; if ecologists ignore anthropogenic influences, they will probably attribute change to the wrong processes. Second, and perhaps more important, if ecologists want to guide or 'engineer' the human transformation of the earth to reduce unintended consequences, they need to understand how ecosystems organize and function in response to a huge variety of anthropogenic alterations. "Engineering ecological systems is dangerous. Nature is neither predictable nor inert; rather it is evolutionary and self-modifying. History, evolution, and variation are all central to ecology, but foreign to the 'memory-less,' repeatable, and variation-minimizing methods of traditional engineering. "Ecologists cannot hide behind 'pure' science and divorce themselves from the dangerous application of ecology. Whether ecologists like it or not, managers, policy makers, and the general public use ecological theory, or at least their understanding of ecological theory, to make decisions. To promote 'reflective' management and sound science, ecologists need to study, criticize, and inform the human transformation of nature."
Information, Networks, and the Complexity of Trust in Commons Governance
(2011) Henry, Adam Douglas; Dietz, Thomas
"The publication of Elinor Ostroms (1990) Governing the Commons fueled significant theoretical and empirical progress in the field of commons governance and collective action, most notably in the form of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. A central question within this literature is how trust is created, maintained, and potentially destroyed in the context of sustainability issues. While the commons literature has provided a deeper understanding of trust, most empirical work has been done in relatively simple settings that do not capture the complexity of many global, institutionally-complex dilemmas that we face today. This paper discusses how our understanding of trust in these more complex settings may be improved by considering how two broad categories of variables belief systems and networks influence trust."
The Place of Hunters in Global Conservation Advocacy
(2012) Paulson, Nels
"Hunters consider themselves conservationists, but they also think of themselves as hunters first. Some environmentalists perceive this as a paradox. This hunting-conservation paradox is typically reconciled in very similar ways across the hunting world, and for many they do so through associational life. Specifically, the sustainable hunting model of governance is promoted by hunters; proponents argue that revenue from hunting increases the funding, and therefore efficacy, of conservation efforts at various scales. While conservation worldwide has benefitted tremendously by this governance, there have been variations in the levels of success of different expected social and economic outcomes. Such variation could be explored through greater incorporation of sustainable hunting in global conservation dialogue, while simultaneously broadening conservation advocacy worldwide. However, this does not typically occur due to low levels of trust, stemming from divides in values and styles of reasoning among various environmentalists and hunting advocates. This paper provides insight into such limitations and, hopefully, informs and encourages further dialogue to improve sustainable hunting governance worldwide and expand the breadth of global conservation advocacy."
Scientific Research or Advocacy? Emotive Labels and Selection Bias Confound Survey Results: A response to: Costanza. 2000. 'Visions of Alternative (Unpredictable) Futures and Their Use in Policy Analysis'
(2000) Vanclay, Jerome K.
"Robert Costanza presents four compelling visions of the future, but the language he uses to describe them is emotive and value-laden and may bias the survey results. The descriptions and analogies used may evoke responses from the survey participants that reveal more about their reactions to the description than their attitudes toward a given scenario. It is hypothesized that the use of more neutral language may lead to more support for the scenario involving 'self-limited consumption with ample resources" that Costanza calls "Big Government.' If this hypothesis is correct, then the skeptic's policy that Costanza appears to prefer has the additional advantage of always leading to the favored outcome, regardless of the state of the world."

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