Making ecological science policy-relevant: issues of scale and disciplinary integration

Stevens, Carly and Thomas, M.B. and Fraser, I.M. and Mitchley, J. (2007) Making ecological science policy-relevant: issues of scale and disciplinary integration. Landscape Ecology, 22 (6). pp. 799-809. ISSN 0921-2973

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Abstract

In this paper, we ask why so much ecological scientific research does not have a greater policy impact in the UK. We argue that there are two potentially important and related reasons for this failing. First, much current ecological science is not being conducted at a scale that is readily meaningful to policy-makers. Second, to make much of this research policy-relevant requires collaborative interdisciplinary research between ecologists and social scientists. However, the challenge of undertaking useful interdisciplinary research only re-emphasises the problems of scale: ecologists and social scientists traditionally frame their research questions at different scales and consider different facets of natural resource management, setting different objectives and using different language. We argue that if applied ecological research is to have greater impact in informing environmental policy, much greater attention needs to be given to the scale of the research efforts as well as to the interaction with social scientists. Such an approach requires an adjustment in existing research and funding infrastructures.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Landscape Ecology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/environmentalscience
Subjects:
?? environmental scienceecologynature and landscape conservationgeography, planning and developmentge environmental sciences ??
ID Code:
53737
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
25 Apr 2012 09:09
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 12:45