Abstract

A primary objective of management is to achieve sustainable interactions and relationships. As individuals, this involves interactions with other individuals, other species, ecosystems, and the biosphere. It is the same for us as a species: management involves sustainable interactions – relationships with individuals, other species, ecosystems, and the biosphere (the non-human). Two crucial steps in carrying out such management are: (a) to ask clear management questions and (b) to carefully express matching research questions. Central to the message of this chapter is the point that the pairing of such questions must be tightly coupled. There must be a pair of questions for each of our many interactions with the non-human in order to achieve sustainability. The pairing of management questions and scientific questions must involve a consistency far beyond anything achieved in today's management. It must identify the kind of interaction and the levels of biological organization (e.g., individuals, species, and ecosystems) involved. Achieved effectively, the match between the two kinds of questions removes most of the barriers that currently exist between science and management – barriers of human origin that not only prevent achieving sustainability but have also led to many of the problems we face today.