Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: Ethical questions for resource managers.

Author: Reeves, G.H.; Bottom, D.L.; Brookes, M.H., tech. coords.

Date: 1992

Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-288. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station

Station ID: GTR-PNW-288

Description: The decisions of natural resource managers are not simply scientific issues but involve fundamental questions of ethics. Conflicts in fisheries management, forestry, and other applied sciences arise from social and economic factors that affect natural resource values. Administrative processes, cost-benefit analyses, and various management "myths" have been constructed to avoid responsibility for difficult value-based decisions. Through these and other means, individuals and organizational systems tend to "filter" information to minimize conflict. The duty to inform the public of the alternative consequences of management actions remains a basic ethical obligation of the resource professional. This series of essays discusses conflicting values of resource management; the moral responsibilities of resource managers toward natural ecosystems, the public, and future generations; and the obligation of resource professionals to sustain for public scrutiny an open and honest debate about critical resource issues.

Keywords: Environmental ethics, natural resource managers, the Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold, fisheries management, resource economics

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Citation

Reeves, G.H.; Bottom, D.L.; Brookes, M.H., tech. coords.  1992.  Ethical questions for resource managers..   Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-288. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station