Social values in forest management: An adventure in teaching

Abstract

Social values issues are becoming increasingly prominent in discussions of forest management and forest policy. This represents an evolution in thinking from the time, only a few decades ago, when a majority believed that virtually all resource management problems had technical, science-based solutions. This article first describes the ascendance of scientific forestry and its subsequent evolution into a more explicitly sociological endeavour. Specifically, it addresses the challenge of educating foresters to have the awareness, understanding, tools and ethical framework to deal with the complex social, political and values-based issues that permeate all of forestry.