Managing ecosystems for sustainability

The underlying assumption of this volume is that as a society, we seek, or should seek, to move towards a vision of sustainability. In other words, we should move along a pathway of 'sustainable development' - recognizing that there will be many conflicting visions of a sustainable state which will shift dramatically with changing knowledge and attitudes - so that the most we can hope to achieve is to be moving in approximately the right direction. To achieve this aim, we need policies for sustainable development which are'ecologically sound, socially acceptable and politically supportable'. We could add that they must be administratively feasible too. Unfortunately, it is all too often overlooked that well-articulated policies or regulations are not an outcome in themselves; they are a critical but early stage in achieving some desired outcome.