I completely agree - and this is where ecology enters the fray of
interdisciplinary work. We met with similar issues when trying to
integrate ecology with development in an African Village. One of our
planned interventions was increased linear rows of trees along roads
to provide shade for pedestrians, an additional source of fuelwood,
and to increase connectivity for tree dependent bird species. Nothing
fancy, and certainly well intentioned. However even the road engineers
working on the project with us were consulted, they were very much
opposed to the idea stating that shaded roads took too long to dry,
were perpetually muddy, and that muddy roads here were non-funtional
(I had to agree after trying to ride the motorcyle or even drive the
landcruiser on one - it was more like ice capades).
We never would have imagined this without consulting with the
engineers however, and being open to considering their point of view.
I think that this will be a major challenge in the future - how do we
communicate with large and diverse groups of stakeholders, and how do
we seek consensus??
Rosenzweig's Book "Win-Win Ecology: How the earth's species can
survive in the midst of human enterprise" follows several examples,
and is an easy, but worthy read.
Fabrice
On Feb 24, 2009, at 8:08 AM, Robert McGuinn wrote:
I agree with Matthew on this. These landscape crews are caught in the
middle between several different, and most likely, unstated,
management
objectives. Lack of communication and understanding between
ecologists,
landscape architects, urban planners, and landscape maintenance
staff is a
persistent problem and we could do more by reaching out to these
professions. After all, for all of our musings and research on
ecological
function, these are the people, who are most directly challenged to
put
something real on the ground, at least in human-dominated
landscapes. The
other thing is that management plans need to be established that
clearly
articulate functional goals for each managed landscape in question.
Is it
aesthetics, recreation, or ecological function, or a combination of
the
above? Whatever it is, it should be written down and communicated
to all
stakeholders. This problem, as most problems, revolves around
unstated
goals and perceptions and a lack of communication. Demonizing one
party or
another is totally unproductive behavior and is counter to effective
decision making.
Robert McGuinn
*****************************************************
Fabrice De Clerck PhD
Landscape Ecologist/Ecologo de Paisaje
Dept. Agricultura y Agroforesteria
CATIE 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (506) 2558-2596
Fax: (506) 2558-2046
Web: www.catie.ac.cr
Adjunct Associate
Tropical Agriculture Program
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Email: [email protected]
Skype: fadeclerck
Web:www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/mvp/
*******************************************************
"Everything not given is lost"
