At the conclusion of the second millennium, society finds itself in an ironic situation in which most “renewable” natural resources (fisheries, forest products, grazing lands, agricultural genetic diversity, and other living resources) are in worse condition than many non-renewable natural resources such as minerals and inorganic materials. The problem is one facing many nations throughout the world, including the United States.This situation has resulted from a combination of many factors: a rapidly expanded and expanding human population; increased consumption and considerable waste of resources; a lack of information about ecological systems and their limits; failure to apply existing knowledge to environmental problems; historical attitudes about limitless resources; fragmented responsibilities and management; and a single-resource focus, to name only a few. While scientific information is not the sole answer to achieving sustainability in resource management and resource consumption, science is essential if society is going to be able to: (1) secure a solid information base about how to manage resources sustainably; (2) find the means to communicate that information credibly and apart from political agendas; and (3) educate not only public and private decisionmakers, but also the general public.

1. Science and Policymaking
Science should be an integral part of policymaking throughout the process, not only at the beginning.

2. Stakeholders
Local and regional stakeholders should be in involved in all decisionmaking about resource management.

3. Cross-boundary Conflicts
Mechanisms are needed to resolve conflicts that arise among stakeholders because of management units that cross political and jurisdictional boundaries.

4. Incentives
Incentives for public and private resource management that can supplement the regulatory environment should be established.

5. Public Understanding
Insufficient public understanding and acceptance of the scientific basis of resource management exacerbates already existing tensions.

6. Analysis and Synthesis
The data that scientists currently provide for resource management often does not include the analysis and synthesis necessary for information to be usable in the policy sphere.

7. Legal Framework
The legal framework for connecting science with decision-making on natural resource issues should be reviewed and revitalized, taking into account the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which often interferes with the flow of information among scientists, stakeholders, and federal decisionmakers.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Education
The Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) should support education and training, including curriculum development on sustainability for teachers of grades K-12.

2. Legal Guidance
The Department of Justice should develop guidance for judges to use in litigation involving resource management. Scientists should be involved in developing these guidelines.

3. Coordination
The Administration should examine jurisdictional conflicts in natural resource management and make recommendations for better coordination of the planning process across agency boundaries and across media including freshwater, marine, coastal, land, and air.

4. Scientific Uncertainty
Congress should fund a National Research Council (NRC) study to reexamine and develop an analytical framework for assessing the environmental impacts of various proposed management actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in the face of scientific uncertainty.

5. Council on Environmental Quality
The President and Congress should evaluate the role of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in overseeing the assessment of environmental impacts and the sustainability of management actions.

6. Research
The relevant Federal agencies (including NSF, EPA, DOE, USDA) should undertake comprehensive research efforts (including modeling) on complex environmental systems to better understand the interactions between human and natural systems with respect to long-term sustainability.

back

contents