Excerpt
NATURAL resource management problems often relate as much to the behavior of people as to the behavior of an ecosystem. Achieving social change among the people involved in a particular resource management problem may be as important and difficult, or more so, than making changes in the ecosystem.
Among the factors related to renewable resources management, social change deserves special attention because of the resource planning at various levels going on throughout the country and the world. Training and experience of resource professionals relates primarily to achieving biophysical changes in the ecosystem. How to achieve concurrently the necessary social changes in people is not well understood by many resource professionals because it is not emphasized and often not even included in academic and on-the-job training. Yet this is where natural resource management programs often bog down; both kinds of changes are mandatory for resource management to be genuinely effective and long-lasting.
Obtaining social change in the context of natural resource management is an intricate process. It involves varied personal opinions and long-formed, often inherited habits and lifestyles of individuals in user groups. It involves the objectives and goals of members of resource-oriented organizations and agencies …
Footnotes
E. William Anderson is a certified range management consultant, 1509 Hemlock Street, Lake Oswego, Oregon 97034. Robert C. Baum is the Pacific Region representative for the National Association of Conservation Districts, 831 Lancaster Drive, N.E., Suite 207, Salem, Oregon 97301.
- Copyright 1987 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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