During the past twenty-five years, North American forestry has received increasingly vigorous scrutiny. Critics including the environmentalists, environmental scientists, representatives of public interest groups, and many individual citizens have expressed concerns about forestry's basic assumptions and methods, as well as its practical outcomes. Criticism has centered on such issues as the exploitation of forests for timber production, the reduction and fragmentation of old-growth habitats, the destruction of biodiversity, the degradation of grasslands through grazing practices, lack of government attention to recreation facilities, silvicultural methods like clearcutting and the use of herbicides and pesticides, the exportation of industrial forestry techniques to other parts of the world, and the use of public monies to provide services for private resouce companies, as in the creation of logging roads. This rising tide of public scrutiny has led many foresters to suspect that their "contract" with society to manage forests using their best professional judgment had been undermined. Some of these professionals, as well as some of their critics, have begun to reexamine their old beliefs and to look for new ways of practicing forestry. Part of this reflective process has entailed new directions in environmental ethics and environmental philosophy. This reader brings together some of the new thinking in this area. Here students of the applied environmental and natural resource sciences, as well as the interested general reader, will discover a rich sampling of writings in environmental ethics and philosophy as they apply to forestry. Readings focus on basic ethical systems in forestry and forest management, philosophical issues in forestry ethics, codes of ethics in forestry and related natural resource sciences such as fisheries science and wildlife biology, Aldo Leopold's land ethic in forestry, ethical advocacy and whistleblowing in government resource agencies, the ethics of new forestry, ecoforestry, and public debate in forestry, as well as ethical issues in global forestry such as the responsibilities of forest corporations, environmentalists, and individual wood consumers. This volume contains materials from the founders of forestry ethics, such as Bernhard Fernow, Giford Pinchot, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold; from such organizations as the Society of American Foresters, the Wildlife Society, the American Fisheries Society, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and the Ecoforesters group, in addition to writings by a variety of well-known environmental philosophers and foresters, including Holmes Rolston, Robin Attfield, Lawrence Johnson, Michael McDonald, Paul Wood, James E. Coufal, Raymond Craig, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Jeff DeBonis, Jim L. Bowyer, Alasdair Gunn, Goug Gaigle, Alan G. McQuillan, Stephanie Kaza, Alan Dregson, Duncan Taylor, and Kathleen Dean Moore. Author note: Peter C. List is Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University, where he teaches courses on environmental ethics, ethical issues in the natural resource sciences, and sustainable forestry. He is the author of articles on Aldo Leopold's land ethic, and co-author of several articles on public attitudes about federal forests and forest management, published in the Journal of Forestry and Society and Natural Resources.

Ethical skills are especially important for natural resource managers who have responsibility for the long-term care of the land. Although primarily addressing foresters and natural resource managers, Ethics in Forestry examines questions of compelling interest and importance to concerned citizens and citizen groups. Refreshingly, for all readers, it does not seek to teach the right answers, but rather encourages asking the right questions.

To comprehensively address the complexities of current socio-ecological problems involved in global environmental change, it is indispiseble to achieve an integration of ecological understanding and ethical values. Contemporary science proposes an inclusive ecosystem concept that recognizes humans as components. Contemporary environmental ethics includes eco-social justice and the realization that as important as biodiversity is cultural diversity, inter-cultural, inter-institutional, and international collaboration requiring a novel approach known as biocultural conservation. Right action in confronting the challenges of the 21st century requires science and ethics to be seamlessly integrated. This book resulted from the 14th Cary Conference that brought together leading scholars and practitioners in ecology and environmental philosophy to discuss core terminologies, methods, questions, and practical frameworks for long-term socio-ecological research, education, and decision making.

This compendium of papers was developed in response to the assumption that implementing an ecological approach to forest management requires an understanding of socially acceptable forestry -- what it is and the implications of doing it. Perspectives from a variety of social science disciplines are presented which attempt to define social acceptability and examine the question from a public, philosophical and ethical standpoint to determine whether the focus on social acceptability is an appropriate and useful one. Charts and tables. Bibliography.

The purpose of this book is to cast the current debates about environmental conservation and economic development within an ethical framework. Using the concept of sustainability, the distinguished editors, following a broad-ranging survey of the nature and practice of ethical ideas in approaching problems and conflicts in environmental and development issues, have invited scholars from a wide range of cultural, political, religious and philosophical backgrounds to review what constitutes the major ethical issues within their own fields. Contributions from the perspectives of the western liberal democratic societies, the eastern command economies, Japan, Latin America, and Africa provide illuminating and sometimes surprising models for ethical ways of environmental thinking.