The second is to seek to obtain better data and information, through forest inventory and research, to assess where we are today and to help us understand the biological and social implications of alternative approaches to forest sustainability at various scales. We need better biological and environmental information. We need better economic and social information. Specifically, we need better information on the implications of our individual and collective consumption habits on the ecosystems that sustain us. The lack of these kinds of information causes debates on these issues to be more ideological than they ought to be.
Information can help narrow the debate and focus it more constructively.
We need to be able to respond to new information, of course. But history demonstrates that the most volatile dimension in this arena is changing human ideas about the values and objectives we would like to see sustained. Yours is a constructive effort to grapple with this formidable challenge. 1 Doug MacCleery, Asst.