Embracing panarchy, building resilience and integrating adaptive management through a rebirth of the National Environmental Policy Act

Authors

Melinda Harm Benson, University of New Mexico - Main CampusFollow
Ahjond S. Garmestani, United States Environmental Protection AgencyFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2011

Citation

Journal of Environmental Management 92 (2011) 1420-1427; doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.10.011

Abstract

Environmental law plays a key role in shaping policy for sustainability of socialeecological systems. In particular, the types of legal instruments, institutions, and the response of law to the inherent variability in socialeecological systems are critical. Sustainability likely must occur via the institutions we have in place, combined with alterations in policy and regulation within the context of these institutions. This ecosystem management arrangement can be characterized as a panarchy, with research on sustainability specific to the scale of interest. In this manuscript we examine an opportunity for integrating these concepts through a regulatory rebirth of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA currently requires federal agencies to take a “hard look” at the environmental consequences of proposed action. The original intent of NEPA, however, was more substantive and its provisions, while currently equilibrium based, may be reconfigured to embrace new understanding of the dynamics of socialeecological systems.