文章基本信息

标题：Intelligent Tinkering: the Endangered Species Act and Resilience
本地全文：下载
作者：Melinda Harm Benson
期刊名称：Ecology and Society
印刷版ISSN：1708-3087
电子版ISSN：1708-3087
出版年度：2012
卷号：17
期号：4
出版社：The Resilience Alliance
摘要：The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most powerful and controversial environmental laws in theUnited States. As a result of its uncompromising position against biodiversity loss, the ESA has become the primary driver ofmany ecological restoration efforts in the United States. This article explains why the ESA has become the impetus for so manyof these efforts and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the ESA as a primary driver from a resilience-based perspective.It argues that in order to accommodate resilience theory, several changes to ESA implementation and enforcement should bemade. First and foremost, there is a need to shift management strategies from a species-centered to a systems-based approach.Chief among the shifts required will be a more integrated approach to governance that includes a willingness to reassess demandsplaced on ecological systems by our social systems. Building resilience will also require more proactive management effortsthat support the functioning of system processes before they are endangered and on the brink of regime change. Finally, resiliencethinking requires a reorientation of management away from goals associated with achieving preservation, restoration, andoptimization and toward goals associated with fostering complexity and adaptive capacity.
关键词：Endangered Species Act; governance; resilience; social-ecological systems