Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
protection (leaving aside their suitability in other contexts). They do not
re
ect the reality of how the functionality of ecosystems is placed at
risk. Instead, laws are required that replace a
'
bottom-line
'
conception of
the environment with a
approach to environmental decision-
making. This would be based on recognition that we are unable to identify
where the
'
top-line
'
lies. We should therefore concentrate our efforts on
bolstering the health of ecosystems by controlling our impacts on them in
the hope that they will be strong enough to withstand the natural and
anthropogenic disturbances that they encounter in the future.
'
cliff edge
'
3.1.2 Ecological policy-making
In
Section 3.3
proposals for a legal framework under which ecologically
oriented policy-making might be conducted are set out. It is designed to
facilitate and, where necessary, to drive the passage from passive man-
agement of environmental risks to active risk reduction by promoting
practices that reduce the stresses that we place on ecosystems, and by
moving away from reliance on those that are likely to erode resilience or
trigger regime shifts. It addresses the challenges that uncertainty and
therelativenatureofresiliencepresentforecologicalprotectionintwo
main respects. The
rstisthatitplacesecologicalvaluesatitsapexby
making the preservation of ecosystem functionality the principal objec-
tive of policy-making. Policy options are to be assessed and a hierarchy
of preferred alternatives established by reference to their compatibility
with what is ecologically valuable rather than through prediction of the
effects they may have.
The second is that forward-looking strategies are to be prepared with
a view to determining how the stresses we place on ecosystems can be
diminished. Policy-makers are required, through strategy formation, to
develop scenarios in which the ecological impacts of economic and social
activity have been lessened and then to explore how governmental action
might promote their realisation. Strategies would examine how options
that are judged to be too ecologically harmful for continued reliance
on them might be replaced. They would also lay down proposals for
increasing the use of preferred alternatives in meeting policy objectives.
The visions developed would provide a platform for public discussion
and debate about what the shift towards an ecologically safer future
would entail, of the economic and social impacts that different rates of
progress towards this future would have, and the acceptability of policy
measures that would be necessary for reaching desired ends. Ultimately,
