The whole reason we have professional biologists and professional business folks is because by living their subject they become attuned to the processes which enable them to make sound intuitive judgements within their respective fields. Numerically measurable information becomes virtually meaningless outside the context of this intuitive ability to interpret it. The answer is that all the parties involved in resource management decisions have lost trust in each other. The irony is that instead of searching for ways of rebuilding trust, we perpetuate the search for so-called objective information. Decisions are therefore deadlocked, or assigned to more study.
All parties are then frustrated and continued effort is expended pursuing senseless objectives.
What is needed is discussion between the parties affected by decisions, aimed at discovering a workable solution to the problems at hand. Each is expected to consider and present only their own myopic perspective, and then an administrator or judge is supposed to determine who will win and who will lose. If resource management is going to move forward on the issues we face, we have to create institutions that build trust by facilitating civic discourse. We have to create institutions which make the various parties affected by a decision responsible for finding the solutions they can live with. We can no longer rely on institutions which encourage conflict, in which the only roles that can be played are adversarial roles.