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Principles and Indicators

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New Environmentalism

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Abstract

Principles that are based upon strong evidence can help guide effective action. Sustainability, precaution and polluter pays are often presented as principles of environmental management but their meaning remains too imprecise for them to provide sufficient guidance to environmental managers. Much difference remains as to what constitutes a contribution to sustainability and what a precautionary approach to environmental management implies. In the absence of certainty as to what actions to pursue, it is important to learn from experience and be adaptable as environmental conditions change. Environmental indicators assist through providing insight into the state of the environment and how this is affected by changes in population and economic activity. Ideally, an environmental indicator quantifies and thus simplifies environmental phenomena or systems and tells us something about changes taking place. Indicators can be combined into overall index scores to ­compare environmental performance between places but many measurement ­problems remain with the construction of composite scores.

Key Questions

What are the main principles that have been proposed to guide environmental management?

Do the shortcomings of environmental management principles make it futile to propose principles?

What are environmental indicators and how are they useful?

What are the main components of the pressure-state-response model?

How successful are composite indicators such as the EPI at monitoring overall environmental performance?

What do ecological footprints measure?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, University of Auckland, 10 Symonds Street, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Chris R. de Freitas

  2. School of Management, Massey University (Wellington), 63 Wallace Street, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand

    Martin Perry

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  1. Chris R. de Freitas
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  2. Martin Perry
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de Freitas, C.R., Perry, M. (2012). Principles and Indicators. In: New Environmentalism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8254-2_4

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