Ecological risk and policy choice

摘要

Ecological risk assessment proesents policy problems that require resolution by political and social agreement. There is no scientifically correct answer as to what constitutes ecosystem health. reyling too heavily on either stakeholder consensus or science/scientists to reolve this dilemma runs the risk of abdicating tough policy choices to politically unaccountable decision makers. A robust procedure for analyzing and characterizing expert optinion regarding what constitutes an adverse ecological change is proposed as one possible means of achieving ecosystem protection decisions informed by science and judgement.