REFERENCE: Waltner-Toews, D., Kay, J.J., Neudoerffer, C., Gitau, T. 2003. "Perspective Changes Everything: managing ecosystems from the inside out" Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(1):23-30

Perspective Changes Everything: managing ecosystems from the inside out

Waltner-Toews, D., Kay, J.J., Neudoerffer, C., Gitau, T.

In the past, environmental managers could behave as if they were managing a "natural" system to which they were external; criteria for successful management could be derived from historical data, or current pristine systems elsewhere in the world. With few localized exceptions, this approach is no longer viable. Most of the ecosystems for which critical and urgent decisions need to be made are best seen as complex eco-social systems, with people firmly embedded as an integral element. We can no longer manage ecosystems per se, rather we must learn to manage our interactions within our ecological context. This view, which incorporates notions of multiple, interacting, nested hierarchies, feedback loops across space and time, and radical uncertainty with regard to prediction of system behavior, requires re-thinking how we think about science and science-based management. Post-normal science, complex systems theories, and the creation of collective narratives offer the best hope to make progress in this field. We use several ecosystem management and community health programs in Peru, Kenya and Nepal to demonstrate the characteristics necessary for such an "inside out" approach.

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