Abstract
Managers of public multiple-use landscapes are charged to balance a spectrum of interests and objectives, a task that has become increasingly challenging in light of global climate change. Forests supply a diverse array of social, economic, and environmental goods and benefits, but also stand to contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestering and storing carbon. The scientific dimensions of management decisions made against this backdrop are well appreciated, but their ethical complexity tends to be, at best, understated. Focusing on the issue of carbon storage for climate change mitigation in federal forests of the United States Pacific Northwest, we employ the method of argument analysis to highlight the role of normative or ethical judgments in multiple-use forest management. We demonstrate that such decisions are logically predicated on normative judgments about which public interests merit recognition and prioritization in the decision context. We show that a generalized commitment to multiple-use is insufficient as a normative basis for management decisions, and that more ethically explicit judgments are required to reach actionable conclusions about appropriate management objectives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adger WN, Brown K, Tompkins EL (2006) The political economy of cross-scale networks in resource co-management. Ecol Soc 10:9
Ananda J, Herath G (2009) A critical review of multi-criteria decision making methods with special reference to forest management and planning. Ecol Econ 68:2535–2548. https://doi.org/10.1010/j.ecolecon.2009.05.010
Baer SD (1988) The public trust doctrine—a tool to make federal administrative agencies increase protection of public land and its resources. Boston Coll Environ Affairs Law Rev 15:385–436
Birch TH (1993) Moral considerability and universal consideration. Environ Ethics 15:313–332
Brown K, Corbera E (2003) Exploring equity and sustainable development in the new carbon economy. Clim Policy 3S1:S41–S56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clipol.2003.10.004
Buizer M, Humphreys D, de Jong W (2014) Climate change and deforestation: the evolution of an intersecting policy domain. Environ Sci Pol 35:1–11
Butler WH, Monroe A, McCaffrey S (2015) Collaborative implementation for ecological restoration on US public lands: implications for legal context, accountability, and adaptive management. Environ Manag 55:564–577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0430-8
Campbell JL, Harmon ME, Mitchell SR (2012) Can fuel-reduction treatments really increase forest carbon storage in the western US by reducing future fire emissions? Front Ecol Environ 10:83–90. https://doi.org/10.1890/110057
Cohen WB, Harmon ME, Wallin DO, Fiorella M (1996) Two decades of carbon flux from forests of the Pacific northwest. Bioscience 46:836–844
Copi IM, Cohen C (eds) (2009) Introduction to logic, 13th edn. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall
Council on Environmental Quality [CEQ] (2016) Memorandum for heads of federal departments and agencies: final guidance for federal departments and agencies on consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change in National Environmental Policy Act reviews. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/nepa_final_ghg_guidance.pdf. Accessed Sept 2017
Culhane PJ (1981) Public lands politics: interest group influence on the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Davis EJ, White EM, Cerveny LK, Seesholtz D, Nuss ML, Ulrich DR (2017) Comparison of USDA Forest Service and stakeholder motivations and experiences in collaborative federal forest governance in the western United States. Environ Manag 60:908–921. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0913-5
DellaSala DA, Baker R, Heiken D et al (2015) Building on two decades of ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation under the Northwest Forest Plan. Forests 6:3326–3352. https://doi.org/10.3390/f6093326
Dilling L, Failey E (2013) Managing for carbon in a multiple use world: the implications of land-use decision context for carbon management. Glob Environ Chang 21:291–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.10.012
Eckersley R (1999) The discourse ethic and the problem of representing nature. Environ Polit 8:24–49
Ellenwood MS, Dilling L, Milford JB (2012) Managing United States public lands in response to climate change: a view from the ground up. Environ Manag 49:954–967. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9829-2
Failey EL, Dilling L (2010) Carbon stewardship: land management decisions and the potential for carbon sequestration in Colorado, USA. Environ Res Lett 5:024005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/5/2/024995
Favero A, Mendelsohn R, Sohngen B (2017) Using forests for climate mitigation: sequester carbon or produce woody biomass? Clim Chang 144:195–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-017-2034-9
Fraser N (1990) Rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text 25/26:56–80
Gamper CD, Turcanu C (2007) On the governmental use of multi-criteria analysis. Ecol Econ 62:298–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.01.010
Gardiner SM (2004) Ethics and global climate change. Ethics 114:555–600
Goodpaster KE (1978) On being morally considerable. J Philos 75:308–325
Hale B (2011) Moral considerability: deontological, not metaphysical. Ethics Environ 16:37–62
Hale T (2016) “All hands on deck”: the Paris agreement and nonstate climate action. Glob Environ Polit 13:12–22. https://doi.org/10.1162/GLEP_a_00362
Hayward T (2012) Climate change and ethics. Nat Clim Chang 2:843–848. https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE1516
Hume D (2000) A treatise of human nature. Norton DF, Norton MJ (eds), Oxford University Press, New York
Hurteau M, North M (2009) Fuel treatment effects on tree-based forest carbon storage and emissions under modeled wildfire scenarios. Front Ecol Environ 7:409–414. https://doi.org/10.1890/080049
Keith H, Mackey BG, Lindenmayer DB (2009) Re-evaluation of forest biomass carbon stocks and lessons from the world’s most carbon-dense forests. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:11635–11640. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901970106
Krankina ON, Harmon ME, Schnekenburger F, Sierra CA (2012) Carbon balance on federal forest lands of Western Oregon and Washington: the impact of the Northwest Forest Plan. For Ecol Manag 286:171–182
Law BE, Harmon ME (2011) Forest sector carbon management, measurement and verification, and discussion of policy related to climate change. Carbon Manag 2:73–84. https://doi.org/10.4155/cmt.10.40
Lazarus RJ (1986) Changing conceptions of property and sovereignty in natural resources law: questioning the public trust doctrine. Iowa Law Rev 71:631–716
Luyssaert S, Schulze E-D, Borne A, Knohl A, Hessenmoller D, Law BE, Ciais P, Grace J (2008) Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature 255:213–215. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07276
Lynam T, de Jong W, Kusumanto T, Evans K (2007) A review of tools for incorporating community knowledge, preferences, and values into decision making in natural resources management. Ecol Soc 12:5
Markowitz EM, Shariff AF (2012) Climate change and moral judgement. Nat Clim Chang 2:243–247. https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE1378
McCool SF, Guthrie K (2001) Mapping the dimensions of successful public participation in messy natural resources management situations. Soc Natur Resour 14:309–323
McKinley DC, Ryan MG, Birdsey RA et al (2011) A synthesis of current knowledge on forests and carbon storage in the United States. Ecol Appl 21:1902–1924
Millar CI, Stephenson NL, Stephens SL (2007) Climate change and forests of the future: managing in the face of uncertainty. Ecol Appl 17:2145–2151
Miner RA, Abt RC, Bowyer JL et al (2014) Forest carbon accounting considerations in US bioenergy policy. J Forest 112:591–606. https://doi.org/10.5849/jof.14-009
Mitchell SR, Harmon ME, O’Connell KEB (2009) Forest fuel reduction alters fire severity and long-term carbon storage in three Pacific northwest ecosystems. Ecol Appl 19:643–655
Morrell K, Harrington-Buhay N (2012) What is governance in the “public interest”? The case of the 1995 property forum in post-conflict Nicaragua. Public Admin 90:412–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2012.01977.x
Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act [MUSY] (1960) PL 86–517. https://www.fs.fed.us/emc/nfma/includes/musya60.pdf. Accessed July 2017
Mutch RW, Ano SF, Brown JK, Carlson CE, Ottmar RD, Peterson JL (1993) Forest health in the Blue Mountains: a management strategy for fire-adapted ecosystems. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-310, USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, Oregon
Nelson MP, Vucetich JA (2012) Environmental ethics for wildlife management. In: Decker JD, Riley SJ, Siemer WF (eds) Human dimensions of wildlife management. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD, pp 223–237
Okerere C, Dooley K (2010) Principles of justice in proposals and policy approaches to avoided deforestation: towards a post-Kyoto climate agreement. Glob Environ Chang 20:82–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.09.004
Olander LP, Cooley DM, Galik CS (2012) The potential role for management of U.S. public lands in greenhouse gas mitigation and climate policy. Environ Manag 49:523–533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9806-1
Overdevest C (2000) Participatory democracy, representative democracy, and the nature of diffuse and concentrated interests: a case study of public involvement on a National Forest district. Soc Natur Resour 13:685–696
Pan Y, Birdsey RA, Fang J et al (2011) A large and persistent carbon sink in the world’s forests. Science 333:988–993. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1201609
Pinchot G (1947) Breaking new ground. Harcourt, Brace, and Co, New York
Reed MS, Graves A, Dandy N et al (2009) Who’s in and why? A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural resource management. J Environ Manag 90:1933–1949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.01.001
Regan T (1983) The case for animal rights. University of California Press, Berkeley
Shackleton D, Campbell B, Wollenberg E, Edmunds D (2002) Devolution and community-based natural resource management: creating space for local people to participate and benefit? ODI natural resource. Perspectives 76:1–6
Smith RK (2008) Our national forests as carbon sinks: a timely and appropriate change in management emphasis. Public Land Resourc Law Rev 29:183–189
Smithwick EAG, Harmon ME, Remillard SM, Acker SA, Franklin JF (2002) Potential upper bounds of carbon stores in forests of the Pacific Northwest. Ecol Appl 12:1303–1317
Spies TA, Giesen TW, Swanson FJ, Franklin JF, Lach D, Johnson KN (2010) Climate change adaptation strategies for federal forests of the Pacific Northwest, USA: ecological, policy, and socio-economic perspectives. Landsc Ecol 25:1185–1199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9483-0
Sterba JP (1994) Reconciling anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric environmental ethics. Environ Value 3:229–244
Stone CD (2010) Should trees have standing? Law morality, and the environment. Oxford University Press, New York
Thomas JW, Franklin JF, Gordon J, Johnson KN (2006) The Northwest Forest Plan: origins, components, implementation experience, and suggestions for change. Conserv Biol 20:277–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00385.x
Timberlake TJ, Schultz CA (2017) Policy, practice, and partnerships for climate change adaptation on US national forests. Clim Chang 14:257–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584017-2031-z
Tuchmann ET, Davis CT (2013) O&C lands report prepared for Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber. http://digital.osl.state.or.us/islandora/object/osl%3A1663. Accessed July 2017
United Nations (1992) Convention on Biological Diversity. https://www.cbd.int/doc/legal/cbd-en.pdf. Accessed Jan 2018
United Nations (2015) Paris Agreement. http://unfccc.int/files/essential_background/convention/application/pdf/english_paris_agreement.pdf. Accessed Jan 2018
USDA Forest Service [USFS] (2010) National roadmap for responding to climate change. https://www.fs.fed.us/climatechange/pdf/Roadmapfinal.pdf. Accessed Sept 2017
USDA Forest Service [USFS] (2012) National forest system land management planning: final rule and record of decision. Fed Regist 77:21162–21276
VanDeVeer D (1979) Interspecific justice. Inquiry 22:55–70
Vucetich JA, Bruskotter JT, Nelson MP, Peterson RO, Bump JK (2017) Evaluating the principles of wildlife conservation: a case study of wolf (Canis lupus) hunting in Michigan, United States. Journal Mammal 98:53–64. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyw151
Wellstead AM, Stedman RC, Parkins JR (2003) Understanding the concept of representation within the context of local forest management decision making. Forest Policy Econ 5:1–11
White House Office of the Press Secretary (2013) Executive order: preparing the United States for the impacts of climate change. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/01/executive-order-preparing-united-states-impacts-climate-change. Accessed Sept 2017
Williams K, Biedenweg K, Cerveny L (2017) Understanding ecosystem service preferences across residential classifications near Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington (USA). Forests 8:157. https://doi.org/10.3390/f8050157
Wimberly MC, Liu Z (2014) Interactions of climate, fire, and management in future forests of the Pacific Northwest. Forest Ecol Manag 327:270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2013.09.043
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Cheryl Friesen for her ongoing assistance and Chris Still for his invaluable advice. Additional thanks to the two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest research program, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB 1440409); and the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Batavia, C., Nelson, M.P. Translating climate change policy into forest management practice in a multiple-use context: the role of ethics. Climatic Change 148, 81–94 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2186-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2186-2