Ecosystem management, decentralization, and public opinion

In recent years there has been a movement by administrators and policymaker s across the country to reorganize and reinvent government to improve progr am efficiencies, to harness resources outside government in the service of public policy goals, and to better facilitate the input of affected interes ts and the general public. Central to this effort are innovative, decentral ized institutional arrangements which delegate significant authority either to private citizens, program managers within existing bureaucracy, or mark et-based mechanisms. Ecosystem- and watershed-based management, which seek to both prevent pollution and sustain development, are in the vanguard of t his movement. This paper examines this trend toward decentralizing environm ental policy and the use of ecosystem management from the perspective of th e public. Planning and implementation of devolved environmental policy will require the support of local stakeholders and citizens. Using data from a national public opinion survey conducted during the summer of 1998, the pap er examines factors associated with public acceptability of ecosystem manag ement and the preferred level of government and citizen participation that should be involved in the implementation of such management strategies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.