MISSED OPPORTUNITIES IN NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

After 20 years of effort, technical approaches to natural resource management have not been effective in preventing overuse and destruction of resources. The resource modeling community can help to change our present course toward destruction by (1) recognizing and publicizing the ineffectiveness of scientific, technical and magical approaches to resource management, (2) pointing out that the resolution of environmental problems is impossible unless the social problems of excessive human population sizes and excessive consumption are effectively addressed, (3) making clear the irrationality and imprudence of current environmental decisionmaking under uncertainty, and (4) pointing out the impossibility of achieving conservation goals by management that attempts to achieve economic optima.