Ecology, politics and policy

Abstract

Summary ‘The British Ecological Society aims to promote the science of ecology through research and to use the findings of such research to educate the public and influence policy decisions which involve ecological matters.’ Yet, how successful have we been in influencing UK and EU environmental policy? Many scientists hold to the ‘deficit model’ of turning science into policy, the view that if only politicians are told what the science reveals, ‘correct’ policies will automatically follow. Nothing could be further from the truth. Politicians have all kinds of reasons, some valid, some less valid, not to adopt what often seem to us to be common sense policies to protect the environment. Here, I explore some of the successes and failures of ecologists to influence UK and European environmental policy, using acid deposition, the collapse of global marine fisheries, GM crops and climate change, carbon dioxide and ocean acidification as examples. I briefly review the extensive literature (largely ignored by natural scientists) on what social scientists have to say about evidence‐based policy‐making (or the lack of it) and why it often appears to be so difficult to persuade politicians to adopt sound environmental policies. Synthesis and applications. Ecologists can, and do, influence government policy on the environment, but often via complex and iterative interactions that can be painfully slow, and may require fundamental changes in politicians’ belief systems, values and norms.

Trends in hunters, hunting grounds and big game harvest in Spain

“…These recent trends in hunting indicate how socioeconomic and institutional forces, biological processes, and management systems are interrelated. The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to deal with many of the problems in conservation and environmental management has been suggested among others by Milner-Gulland and Mace (1998), Mascia et al (2003), Lawton (2007) and Cooke et al (2009). Current studies on factors affecting big game trends have mostly emphasized the impact of ecological supply variables (Acevedo et al, 2011;Delibes-Mateos et al, 2009;Gortázar et al, 2006;Vargas et al, 2007).…”

What Kind of Scientist Are You? Science and Interdisciplinary Research

“…Furthermore, the ability to collaborate across disciplines has also been identified as a critical skill for conservation careers outside academia (Blickley et al, 2012;Edwards & Gibeau, 2013). Lawton (2007) and Gibeau (2012) have suggested that when scientists are willing to step beyond their disciplinary boundaries and engage with the public and/or policy realms, they can better influence real-world issues and decisions. Researchers who are already comfortable working outside their own discipline are more likely to be comfortable engaging with members of the public.…”

The Role of Geographical Landscape Studies for Sustainable Territorial Planning

“…These expert-based approaches to landscape assessment-also called indirect methods-have been called into question, however, as both their production and application tend to be dominated by professionals rather than the communities in the target landscapes [89,116], and their role in policy tends to follow the "deficit model", which posits policy-makers as neutral guardians of the public trust who simply need to be provided with reliable scientific information in order to make decisions that contribute to sustainability [117]. In a review of 52 LCAs undertaken in the UK between 2007 and 2011, for instance, Butler and Berglund (2014) [118] found that many of them limited public input to responses to expert views of the landscape, with only one quarter of the assessments involving significant public engagement according to the authors' criteria.…”