Ecosystem Management: Additional Actions Needed to Adequately Test a Promising Approach
RCED-94-111
Published: Aug 16, 1994. Publicly Released: Sep 19, 1994.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal efforts to implement an ecosystem management approach, focusing on the: (1) additional actions that are needed to implement the approach; and (2) barriers to governmentwide implementation.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Other | To effectively implement a governmentwide approach to ecosystem management, the Director of the White House Office on Environment Policy, through the Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force, should develop a strategy that clarifies a policy goal for ecosystem management that specifies the priority to be given to maintaining or restoring minimum levels of ecosystem integrity and functioning relative to nonsustainable short-term uses, including commodity production. |
Closed – Implemented
In June 1995, the task force issued its report which, among other things, clarified the policy goals for ecosystem management and established the relative priority to be given to maintaining or restoring minimum levels of ecosystem integrity and functioning relative to nonsustainable short-term uses.
|
| Other | To effectively implement a governmentwide approach to ecosystem management, the Director of the White House Office on Environment Policy, through the Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force, should develop a strategy that translates the principles in the administration's FY 1995 budget into practical steps that clearly identify what must be done and which agencies and parties must be involved, including: (1) delineating the boundaries of the geographic areas to be managed as ecosystems; (2) understanding their ecologies; (3) making management choices about desired future ecological conditions, about the types, levels, and mixes of activities that can be sustained, and about the distribution of activities over time among land units within the ecosystems; and (4) adapting management on the basis of new information. |
Closed – Implemented
In June 1995, the task force issued its report which, among other things, provides a strategy for ecosystem management implementation that identifies practical steps that must be taken by the federal agencies to address the key elements of an ecosystem management approach that were described in the GAO report.
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| Other | To effectively implement a governmentwide approach to ecosystem management, the Director of the White House Office on Environment Policy, through the Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force, should develop a strategy that identifies barriers to governmentwide implementation of ecosystem management and specific statutory, regulatory, institutional, and procedural options for overcoming them. |
Closed – Implemented
In its November 1995 report, the task force identified issues relating to budgeting, institutional approaches, public participation, scientific and information management, and legal authorities, and made recommendations to begin to address them.
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| Other | To effectively implement a governmentwide approach to ecosystem management, the Director of the White House Office on Environment Policy, through the Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force, should collectively assess and report the progress made in implementing this strategy in the pilot projects and other ecosystem management initiatives as part of the yearly budget and appropriations process. |
Closed – Implemented
The President's budget requests for fiscal years 1996 and 1997 discuss some of the largest ecosystem management initiatives, providing Congress with information needed to reach decisions on these ecologically and socioeconomically important, but costly, environmental issues.
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Topics
ConservationData collectionEcosystemsEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental policiesstate relationsInteragency relationsLand managementNatural resourcesPublic administrationNatural resource management