What are forests for: The place of ethics in the forestry curriculum

Abstract

A survey conducted to ascertain the degree of formal training in ethics offered to Canadian and American professional foresters and natural resource managers and technicians indicates that forestry ethics is not consistently and coherently covered in forestry curricula. We propose a framework for teaching forestry ethics such that professional codes of ethics are supplemented by environmental ethics and forest history. Environmental ethics offers a rich source of material to guide personal reflection, clarify the ethical dimensions of particular management decisions, and offers tools to facilitate normative discourse. However, this literature often lacks an integrated consideration of what actually happens. Forest history with its in-depth case studies and broad stroke depictions of past forest management decisions provides a surrogate for lived experience and a long-term perspective. Copyright © 2007 by the Society of American Foresters.