Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
existential threat becomes apparent to a coexistence that seeks to avoid
harm, the production of relevant scienti
c information needs to be driven
by embedded legal processes and an entrenched institutional capacity for
directing and analysing the results of monitoring and research.
Four arguments emerge from the literature on adaptive management
of human impacts on ecosystems in support of building a legal system
that will facilitate this approach around institutions for gathering and
analysing information rather than relying on the commissioning of
research by governments as and when it appears to them that support
for intended action or reaction to problems is necessary.
First, the progressive improvement of ecological knowledge is necessary
because of our poor understanding of ecosystems, and of the likely conse-
quence of this that premises for action that may have seemed well-founded
may subsequently prove to be erroneous as our knowledge of natural
systems and the way that they react to stresses increases. Tarlock argues
that the new understanding of ecosystems as dynamic entities requires, if we
are to conserve them, a dynamic regulatory approach that
'
incorporates a
continuous process of acquiring and evaluating scienti
c information
'
with
.
15
Karkkainen places
emphasis on collaboration between governments and researchers that is
aimed at generating the
a view to producing what he calls
'
a regulatory science
'
continuous stream of high-quality, policy-relevant,
locally-situated ecosystem science
'
'
that will allow an adaptive approach to
ecosystem management to be adopted.
16
It is clear from this emphasis on
continuity that bodies need to be established with responsibility for ensuring
that the
ow of relevant information is maintained. The sporadic gathering
of information will not, of itself, provide an adequate knowledge base for an
enhanced understanding of how human activities affect ecosystem
functionality.
The second is that an institutional capacity for learning from new
information is essential if adaptive management is to amount to more
than a means of responding to the unanticipated.
17
It is hoped that
learning from new information will improve baseline knowledge about
ecosystem behaviour, and that this, in turn, will better enable us to
appreciate how controls might be applied to conserve natural systems.
Brunnée and Toope describe a legal framework that would allow this
progress towards effective regulation as one which would be
'
facilitative
15
Tarlock,
'
Ecosystems
'
,p.581.
16
Karkkainen,
'
Collaborative Ecosystem Governance
'
, 202.
17
Iles,
'
Adaptive Management
'
,292.
