On Frank Golley’s International and Interdisciplinary Insights for a Twenty-First Century Earth Stewardship Based on Environmental Ethics - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 418

Chapter 29
On Frank Golley's International
and Interdisciplinary Insights for a Twenty-
First Century Earth Stewardship Based
on Environmental Ethics
Alan P. Covich
Abstract Current interest in developing a worldview to enhance Earth stewardship
recognizes the importance of a multicultural perspective based on environmental
ethics and a global understanding of the value of biodiversity and ecosystem pro-
cesses. Frank Golley was a champion in developing and implementing ecosystem
concepts based on “nature-centered thinking”. His environmental ethics-based prin-
ciples emphasized “connectedness” among people and their environment that
included the value of cultural differences in responding to natural and human-driven
disturbances. Golley concluded that long-term, large-scale international studies are
essential in evaluating the vulnerability of species and their habitats as well as eco-
system processes. Some ecological disturbances are easy to observe (e.g., fl oods,
fi res, hurricanes) while others (e.g., gradual loss of species, slow spread of invasive
species) take longer to study but most require long-term research before their full
impacts are known. Moreover, cumulative effects and indirect effects of complex
interactions require multi-disciplinary research to sort out the causes and effects of
changing ecosystem structure and function, often at a global scale. Research in
tropical ecosystems demonstrated the need for organizing site-based research for
extensive comparative studies. Golley's international leadership accelerated prog-
ress in enhancing the understanding of how these long-term changes in tropical
rainforests and agroecosystems can affect local populations and global connections
with other ecosystems. Today ongoing studies of both wet and dry tropical forests
are providing important data related to ecosystem services needed by local com-
munities. Golley's linking of ecosystem ecology, landscape ecology, and environ-
mental ethics helped to defi ne pragmatic sustainable “response systems” as a way to
resolve complex tradeoffs among confl icting perspectives and his approach can
continue to help develop ideas for Earth stewardship.
Keywords Ecosystem services ￿ Environmental ethics ￿ Long-term ecosystem
research ￿ Stewardship