Healthy ecosystems and sustainable economies: the federal interagency ecosystem management initiative

This article provides an overview of the process used by about 20 agencies of the United States federal government to review federal efforts to adopt an ecosystem approach and to recommend ways to strengthen this approach. The method utilized by these agencies was to form a Working Group representing each agency and to select seven case study sites where federal agencies were already working together to coordinate their efforts across an ecosystem. Based upon the results of the case studies and discussions with people involved in other ecosystem efforts, the Working Group identified key issues that need to be considered in order to strengthen this approach. Five issue groups were formed to further refine these issues and to make recommendations for effectively dealing with them. This paper provides brief descriptions of the case study sites, reviews the key issues and presents highlights of recommendations. It is the work of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of their respective federal agencies or of the Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force.