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Relationship of Research to Management in
the Madrean Archipelago Region
Peter F. Ffolliott1, Leonard F. DeBano2 , and
Alfredo Ortega-Rubio3
Abstract.-Our purpose is to provide a context for answering the
question: How this conference can address the relationship of research
to management of ecosystems in the Madrean Archipelago region? We
hope that the linkages between research and management, necessary
to meet people's needs while maintaining biophysical integrity, will be
viewed as a circular process. That is, much effective research is
formulated in response to people's desires for implementing better
management, and (in turn) better management frequently evolves from
the infusion of the new findings. To place the linkages between research
and management into a perspective for the participants of this
conference, we present a conceptual model of the main sectors of the
Madrean Archipelago (population, agriculture, industry, natural
resources, and pollution), which are linked by a web of feedback loops
representing transfers of knowledge and technology obtained from
researchers and managers. We believe this representation provides a
useful tool for attempting to understand where we have been, where we
currently are, and where we should proceed in the future to ensure that
the concerns of people are addressed properly in relation to the unique
characteristics of the Madrean Archipelago region. It is imperative that
researchers, managers, and all of the other stakeholders work together
in developing a mutu~1 trust in understanding and managing the
resources in question.
INTRODUCTION
Science, as used here, represents the possession of knowledge attained through study
(research) and practices (management). Therefore,
researchers and managers are scientists. It is our
view that scientists should enter into a compact of
trust with all the other interested stakeholders in
the advancement of knowledge. Unfortunately, researchers, managers, and environmentalists in the
Madrean Archipelago are occasionally at odds on
the direction that science should take. Much of
this disagreement can be traced to differing environmental philosophies that people possess.
A problem from a theoretical standpoint has
been the conflict between what have been called
the IIbiocentrism" and anthrocentrism" schools
of thought. The biocentrists assert the need to put
nature first, and the dire environmental consequences of putting human needs first (Hays 1992),
while anthrocentrists argue that human needs
take precedence over environmental concerns,
Biocentrists have gained a fair amount of public-
The intent of this conference is bringing together researchers, managers, and all of the other
stakeholders in the Madrean Archipelago-the
area in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico where scattered, isolated
mountains are found in a sea of largely evergreen
woodlands-to address a wide array of issues relating to conservation and sustainability of the
region. One key to the success of the conference,
therefore, is adequately addressing the relationship of research to management of the
represented ecosystems, That is the purpose of
this paper.
II
1Professor, School of Renewable Natursl Resources, University of
Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
2Supervisory soil Scientist, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain
Forest and Range Experiment Station, Tucson, Arizona.
3Director, Terrestrial Biology Division, Centro de Investigaciones BiologicBS del Noroeste, S.C., La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
31
research is to develop new alternatives (practices,
tools, concepts, products, services, etc.) for managers. Another purpose is to answer questions of
fact that arise in the management process. A third
is to answer questions of fact that arise in cond ucting research, since all to often these basic
questions must be answered satisfactorily before
the first two purposes of research can be addressed efficiently.
Many researchers do not provide information
directly to managers. Some provide information
to solve the problems of other researchers. Research, therefore, can be viewed as a continuum
with the manager at one end of the spectrum.
Managers are concerned principally with stakeholders' problems. When managers lack the
information needed to help evaluate stakeholders'
alternatives, they often "experiment" with these
alternative approaches until a "satisfactory solution" is obtained; many managers, therefore,
become "surrogate" researchers in the process.
Next on the continuum are researchers who
are attempting to answer managers' immediate
questions of fact, for example those focusing on
resource-use trends, prices, and technologies. Following these are the" developmental researchers,"
who create new alternatives for the managers that
will help solve both immediate problems and
those yet to be formulated. Further along the
spectrum are the researchers who serve a clientele
of other researchers. These researchers typically
come from the basic disciplines, providing the
facts, relationships, and other inputs needed by
those who conduct the "more applied" developmental research. Although the ultimate clients for
all researchers and managers are the other stakeholders, it can be seen that the intermediate
clientele can be managers or other researchers.
Successful problem anticipation and, as a consequence, planning become more difficult as the
distance on the spectrum between researchers and
managers increases. While researchers focus on
their immediate clients in many instances, even
their most basic activities usually are intended to
help solve management problems. Research planners, therefore, need to anticipate these problems
accurately and articulate their contents appropriately. Information necessary for the solutions of
the problems comes from managers, environmentalists, and other members of society who are
stakeholders in the enterprise. To the extent that
information comes from all these sources, it confirms the premise put forth earlier in this paper
that research and management should be viewed
as a circular process.
ity in the popular press, but have not always affected the cause of environmental action to the
extent that they have hoped. To protect natural
systems from development, they often adopt the
pragmatic action of finding ways for public or private bodies to insulate an area from the private
market to "save" it.
While the basic philosophical issues of this
discussion are important, a more productive approach for this conference may be one advanced
by Norton (1991). He believes that the dominant
reason for environmental actions should be practical, pragmatic, and focused on problem-solving.
He also believes that interested stakeholders
waste much time and energy, and foster unneeded
tensions, by arguing the merits of the biocentric
view as epitomized by John Muir in relation to the
use-oriented tradition of conservation exemplified
by Gifford Pinchot. It is more important, Norton
continues, that all of the stakeholders focus on
practical situations in which those who are at
odds on some philosophical points can work out
mutually acceptable solutions to problems.
ROLES OF RESEARCHERS AND
MANAGERS
The roles of researchers and managers in relation to the consumptive and nonconsumptive uses
of resources in satisfying human desires have
been articulated nicely by Stoltenberg~t al. (1970)
among others. In general, resource managers assist individual and societal stakeholders in a
number of ways. Managers help stakeholders
identify and clarify their objectives. They also
identify for the stakeholders the alternative approaches to achieving their objectives, and help
them to evaluate or compare these alternatives,
selecting the most promising opportunities for
achieving the stated objectives. Managers frequently spend a disproportionate part of their
time supervising subsequent activities to implement these decisions, however, and have
insufficient time to emphasize problem-solving efforts. This situation is unfortunate, because
managers often are making their most valuable
contributions helping stakeholders make decisions,
Just as a manager's contributions are measured by how effectively they help stakeholders
satisfy their wants, the value of resource researchers is determined largely by how much
their efforts increase the efficiency of the managers (Stoltenberg et al. 1970). One purpose of
32
A PERSPECTIVE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF
RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT IN THE
MADREAN ARCHIPELAGO REGION
therefore, the flows of these resources depend
largely upon the level of industrial capital targeted for their exploitation. Industry and
agriculture both generate pollution, and severe
pollution affects both people (by reducing their
health) and their food sources (by reducing agricultural yield). Effective research followed by
responsive management are necessary in assuring
that all of the feedback loops connecting the sectors are identified properly, the flowlines are
comprehensive in content, and the flows into and
out of the reservoirs are effective, efficient, and
appropriate. Attaining these assurances should be
a major goal of researchers and managers in the
Madrean Archipelago region. To this end, we
hope that this conference provides a forum for the
participants to evaluate where we have been,
where we currently are, and where we should
proceed in the future in meeting this important
goal.
The representation shown in figure 1 is a simplified model and not intended to be all
encompassing. It is obvious that much has been
left out of this simplified version. For example, all
of the resources that drive industries (metals, energy, foodstocks, etc.) are amalgamated into a
single feedback loop. Similarly, all of the pollutants (human, agricultural, and industrial wastes)
are represented by one loop. And, importantly,
there is no representation of geographical inference in the model. The peoples in both the
A perspective on the importance of effective
research and responsive management in the Madrean Archipelago region can be gained, we
believe, through a recognition of the dynamic nature of the systems encountered. The conceptual
model in figure 1, originally constructed by Meadows et al. (1972) to represent the limits to growth
on a world-wide scale, illustrates how population,
agriculture, industry, natural resources, and pollution in the Madrean Archipelago are linked
together by a web of multiple feedback loops.
These feedback loops represent transfers of the
"products" of knowledge and technology from
one sector to another and, therefore, are largely
the combined products of research and management. While other models may apply equally
well, this model was selected because it is structured in a format that depicts the Madrean
Archipelago region, and contains the sectors important to the people of the region.
Most of the linkages in figure 1 suggest interdependence
of
the
sectors
represented
(population, agriculture, etc.). Agriculture and
population, for example, have an obvious interdependence in that more of one implies more of
another. Industry dependents on needed inputs of
nonrenewable resources (ore, fuels, etc.), and,
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Figure 1.-linkages of population, agriculture, industry, natural resources, and pollution in the Madrean Archipelago region (adapted
from Meadows et at 1972).
33
all of the ecological processes that link them together) that has importance beyond traditional
commodity and amenity uses (Kessler et al. 1992).
With this view, management practices that optimize the production or use of one or a few
resources can compromise the balances, values,
and functional properties of the whole. Furthermore, the production or use of individual
resources in themselves might not lead to sustainability.
Objectives of the ecosystem approach relate to
the ecological and aesthetic conditions of the
landscape, and sustainable levels of land uses and
resource yields that are compatible with these
conditions. In some respects, these objectives reflect the earlier concept of "area-oriented"
multiple use management, in which the information needed to describe resource potentials is
drawn from "resource-oriented" multiple use.
This information is then arranged, analyzed, and
evaluated in spatial relation to a given land area's
suitabilities for management, and the dynamics of
local, regional, and national demands of the people (Ridd 1965).
Current conflicts in resource management indicate that the roles of public participation in
relation to endorsing management practices are
changing, regardless of the paradigm. Stakeholders' roles in the past have been largely to respond
to professionally prescribed alternatives that estimate outputs of management in terms of cords of
fuelwood, animal-unit months of grazing, recreational user-days, or breeding pairs of Mexican
spotted owls (Kessler et al. 1992). Tradeoffs have
been presented as changes in the quantities of one
resource use in relation to the others.
The production-oriented multiple use management of the past no longer reflects the thinking
of many people in the Madrean Archipelago. People are not only thinking about optimizing the
levels of competing uses through management,
but also obtaining a harmonious relationship with
the rest of the natural system, in contrast to a view
favoring people's dominance over nature (Norton
1988). It is important, therefore, that researchers
and managers develop approaches that better fit
the way people think about land and resources in
today's world. Stakeholders must become informed about the conditions, capabilities, and
options for their lands and resources, and share
the knowledge that professionals accrue through
the research and management experience (Kessler
et al. 1992). At the same time, researchers and
managers must understand and consider the values and needs of people, rather than concluding
southwestern United States and northwestern
Mexico are one-as perhaps they should be considered in this conference.
CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY IN
THE MADREAN ARCHIPELAGO REGION
Researchers and managers in the Madrean Archipelago, along with researchers and managers
throughout other regions of the United States and
Mexico, face changing expectations on how limited resources should be used to meet people's
needs. Managerial strategies, scientific knowledge, and technology necessary for producing the
traditional multiple uses of resources only partially satisfy stakeholders' interests in the use of
resources in the 1990s. Researchers and managers,
therefore, must become increasingly responsive to
the more demanding viewpoints that stakeholders
have of these resources and their respective roles
in meeting people's desires. Such a perspective
embraces a stewardship that balances the protection of natural environments and a sustainability
of products and services needed by people
(Kessler et al. 1992).
There is little question that the multiple use
philosophy of management served society reasonably well into the 1980s. Lands were characterized
largely in terms of their capacities to yield commodities and amenities. A primary role of
research at this time was discovering the factors
that limited the realization of these capacities,
while a key objective of management was reducing or removing these limitations. Answers to
questions about resources required the identification of "optimum yields" among the desired (and
often competing) uses (Kessler et al. 1992). However, multiple use is not necessarily the best way
to approach management when stakeholders begin to ask far-ranging questions on how to
balance a wide range of potential uses and values,
which is the situation in the Madrean Archipelago
today. An alternative paradigm, one embracing an
"ecosystem approach," has been proposed by the
National Research Council (1990) for the management of forest lands. We suggest this ecosystem
paradigm applies equally well to many of the
lands and resources in the Madrean Archipelago,
The ecosystem approach modifies and broadens the multiple use paradigm to one of
holistically conceived ecosystem management. It
requires one to view lands in a comprehensive
context of living systems (including soils, plants,
animals, minerals, climate, water, topography, and
34
the varied social and economic objectives involved, the heterogeneity of the stakeholders and
organizational structures, and the cultures of the
people involved. All of these topics will be considered in the conference.
what is good or bad for society from their own,
often technical, perspectives.
It should be obvious that new thinking about
resources, people-nature relationships, and sustaining ecosystems is required in the scientific
communities of the Madrean Archipelago. The resulting changes, when they occur, will likely be
reflected by a trend where the traditional basic
and applied disciplines come together in seeking
solutions to the problems of conservation, ecosystem sustainability, and people's welfare
(Christensen 1989, Murphy 1990). The activities of
this conference should encourage such a trend.
LITERATURE CITED
Christensen, P. 1989. Historical roots for ecological economics: Biophysical versus allocation approaches.
Ecological Economics 1:17-36.
Hayes, B. 1993. Balanced on a pencil point. American
Scientist 81 :510-516.
Hays, S.P. 1992. Environmental philosophies. Science
258:1822-1823.
Kessler, W.B.; Salwasser, H.; Cartwright, C.W.; Caplan, J .A.
1992. New perspectives for sustainable natural resources management, Ecological
Applications
2:221-225.
Meadows, D.H.; Meadows, D.L.; Randers, J. Behrens III,
W.W. 1972. The limi ts to growth: A report for the CI ub of
Rome's project on the predicament of mankind. Universe Books, New York. 131 p.
Murphy, D.D.1990.Conservation biology and the scientific
methods. Conservation Biology 4:203-204.
National Research Council. 1990. Forestry research: Amandate for change. National Academy of Science,
Washington, D.C. 84 p.
Norton, B.G. 1988. The constancy of Leopold's land ethic.
Conservation Biology 2:93-102.
Norton, B.G. 1991. Toward unity among environmentalists.Oxford University Press,NewYork.287p "
Ridd, M.K.1965. Area-oriented multiple use analysis. Res.
Pap. INT-21. Ogden UT: u.s. Department of Agriculture, USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and
Range ExperimentStation.14 p.
Stoltenberg, C.H.; Ware, K.D.; Marty, R.J.; Wellons, J.D.
1970. Planning research for resource decisions. The
Iowa State University, Ames,IO. 183p.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
A frequent debate that we have all heard is
whether a big conference such as this is useful and
effective in comparison to a smaller symposium
that addresses specific topics. We are convinced,
however, that this conference, while "big" to some
people, will play an important role in planning for
the future of the Madrean Archipelago that could
not be filled by smaller symposia on more specific, often limited subjects. This conference will
highlight many of the recent, continuing, and
planned efforts of the research and management
communities in the region that will facilitate communication among people of previously diverse
interests. The potential will be established for the
researchers, managers, environmentalists, and
other stakeholders participating in this conference
to cooperate in a setting characterized by mutual
interests, principles, and knowledge. For this to
happen requires a recognition of the ecological
characteristics of the resource base, the level of
ecological knowledge held by the stakeholders,
35