An Ecological Basis for Integrated Environmental Management

Historically, approaches to environmental management activities have been reactive rather than proactive. Environmental laws and regulations have been generated primarily in response to particular issues (e.g., chemical contamination), creating a piecemeal approach for managing the environment. Responsibilities for managing different resources (e.g., water, air, forests, wildlife) have been assigned to different agencies or groups within government, further fragmenting environmental management. Proactive approaches that recognize the interconnectedness of environmental components are necessary to address complex and long-term environmental management issues. This Perspective proposes an environmental management approach that is comprehensive and systematic, while still being comprehensible to decision-makers and other stakeholders. The proposed approach is based on ecology and environmental values related to decision-making. It considers interrelationships among and between living organisms (including humans) and their physical environment. The proposed approach builds on the ecological risk assessment (ERA) paradigm, including goal (or problem) identification, values identification (ecological and human) for the environment being managed, and data collection and analysis focused on management decision-making. Stakeholder involvement and active participation are essential elements. As demonstrated herein, application of the proposed framework has enabled environmental managers to achieve workable solutions and to avoid or resolve environmental conflicts at both local and regional scales. The proposed framework is demonstrably transportable across political boundaries, applicable to all environments involving natural resources, independent of any particular ideology, and applicable to environmental management activities at all scales.