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7: Broadening the Biodiversity Manager's Perspective
Pages 138-144

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From page 138...
... At one end of the management spectrum, that means maintaining intact native biological communities and ecosystems. At the other end, it means simply adapting management to recognize the role of biodiversity in maintaining productivity of managed landscapes.
From page 139...
... This report contains several case studies that are intended to show how a variety of management situations involving biodiversity conservation were or might be resolved. They include President Clinton' s decision to reserve some 7 million acres of Pacific Northwest forests to protect the northern spotted owl and a local decision to protect open space in the city of Boulder, Colorado.
From page 140...
... Managers need ways to evaluate the effects of decisions within their decision space in the broader regional or even global context of biodiversity conservation. A step in this direction is the relatively recent development of regional assessments of biological resources and the biological, economic, and social consequences in some regions of the United States (for example, the Interior Columbia River Basin and the southern Appalachians)
From page 141...
... Despite the growing recognition of the importance of biodiversity in sustaining biological processes, major gaps still exist in our understanding of the systematics of species in the United States, and knowledge of species diversity globally is readily available only for mammals and birds. No single means of establishing economic and noneconomic values allows decision-makers to weigh the full range of people's values in biodiversity simultaneously.
From page 142...
... Although economic valuations often understate the value of natural processes and systems, when economic values are unambiguously greater than expected costs, questions of value and choices are clarified. Especially in the context of utilitarian values, market prices provide a relatively unambiguous measure of some benefits and costs.
From page 143...
... · Most decisions affecting biodiversity will be made on a local scale, but the aggregate of these decisions will affect biodiversity on regional and even global scales. Therefore, there is an urgent need for periodic regional assessments of the state of biodiversity so that managers can assess the consequences of their decisions in broader and more ecologically meaningful contexts.


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