Ecosystem Management

Today's natural resource managers must be able to navigate among the complicated interactions and conflicting interests of decision-makers and diverse stakeholders, ranging from regulators to representatives of interest groups to members of local communities. Technical and scientific knowledge, though necessary, are not sufficient; science is merely one component in a multifaceted world of decision-making. While the demands of resource management have changed greatly, natural resource education and textbooks have not. This work seeks to present a different kind of textbook for a different kind of course. It aims to engage students in active problem-solving using detailed landscape scenarios that reflect the complex issues and conflicting interests that face the modern resource manager and scientist. Focusing on the application of the sciences of ecology and conservation biology to real-world problems, it emphasizes the intricate ecological, socioeconomic and institutional matrix in which natural resource management functions, and illustrates how to be more effective in that challenging area. Accompanying the textbook is an instructor's manual that provides a detailed overview of the book and specific guidance on designing a course around it.