making management decisions
Management decisions must be temporally, spatially, and objective specific.Thus, management and conservation are ultimately conducted at the local level. Specific management activities, although presumably based on scientific knowledge, are conducted within the context of relevant social,economic, and political issues (sensu Brown and MacLeod 1996).Clearly stated goals and objectives will facilitate management and allow the selection of appropriate tools to accomplish these goals and objectives (Box 1.3). Conversely, selection of goals or objectives that are poorly defined or quantified may actually impede management. For example,use of the term“ecosystem health” implies that there is an optimal state associated with an ecosystem, and that any other state is abnormal;however, the optimal state of an ecosystem must be defined, and clearly
stated quantifiable objectives must be developed to achieve that state. Similarly,
“ecosystem integrity” (Wicklum and Davies 1995) and sustainability (Lele and Norgaard 1996) are not objective, quantifiable properties.