ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT - A NEEDS DRIVEN, RESOURCE-USE PHILOSOPHY

Ecosystem management is a resource-use concept that has evolved as a r esult of increasing public awareness and society's concerns regarding the future availability of goods and services from the forest resource . This paper reviews the evolution of the ecosystem management philoso phy and its use as an approach toward holistic resource stewardship to meet the ecological, social and economic needs of society. Successful implementation of ecosystem management will require ''top down'' supp ort from senior level management in government and industry and ''bott om up'' support from field personnel and participating citizens. There will be a need to continually monitor and revisit social values in or der to assess and evaluate the actual and projected results of managem ent activity in the context of society's evolving expectations.