Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
development consent are all based to a degree on assessment of the likely
compatibility of activities and uses with ecosystem functionality. A
capacity to revisit these assessments and revise decisions based on
them is necessary in view of the impossibility of predicting reliably
how ecosystems will react to human disturbance. Such a capacity is
also needed to respond to changing ecological conditions that occur
due both to their natural dynamism and the cumulative in
uences on
them of externalities. Requirements for ongoing monitoring of ecosys-
tems and the assessment and monitoring of the effect of the implemen-
tation of policies and of particular decisions are clearly important for
this. However, these would not have a positive effect on ecological
protection unless they are connected with corresponding legal provision
for the review of policies, plans and decisions or with decision-making
processes that, in emphasising the nature of the information required for
decisions to be made, provide a stimulus for its generation.
Sections 7.3
and
7.4
consider how law might be used to produce a steady stream of
data to support the making and subsequent review of decisions, and to
ensure that this is deployed if it reveals that new approaches are needed
to achieve the system of governance
'
s objectives.
7.2 Developing a capacity for institutional learning
The bodies that will take responsibility for the production and process-
ing of information should be established during the introduction of a
system of ecological governance. Doremus recognises this need in argu-
ingthattobeabletoconservenatureovermeaningfullengthsoftime,
'
we must develop management institutions suited to the ef
cient and
effective production, identi
cation and integration of new scienti
c
.
8
The insti-
tutions for generating information in a system concerned with protect-
ing ecosystems are of two types. A capacity for scienti
knowledge into our natural resource management decisions
'
cadviceisneeded
for the initial system to be established and subsequently revised as
knowledge of ecosystems grows, for the direction and analysis of
ongoing research into and monitoring of systemic conditions, and for
advising on the conclusions to be drawn from information gathered for
decision-making on how activities that may have negative effects should
be conducted. A practical capacity for implementing and maintaining
monitoring programmes, and for ensuring that the knowledge of those
8
Doremus,
'
Adaptive Management
'
,51.
