Integrating Social Science and Ecosystem Management: A National Challenge

Human effects on naturai environments have tradtt~onally been considered in terms of time and geographic scale dimensions. This paper recommends that a social scale also be considered. The social scale is considered from a macro, societal perspective, and micro, social perspective. Problems for managing ecosystems may arise because solutions developed at the societal scale are not compatible with solutions developed at the social scale. Community-based decisionmaking can alleviate such problems when resource managers assume the role of sociai facilitators who establish processes rather than encourage effective communication and cooperation.