Academia, Management, and Policy: The Challenge of Pulling Our Oars in the Same Direction

Gary K. Meffe
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0430. Phone: 352-846-0555; FAX: 352-846-2823; meffe@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu

There are fundamental disconnects between the ecological information academia produces, the data needed by natural resource managers, and the information used to make environmental policy. This three-legged stool has always been crooked, weak, and generally non-functional. The reasons are many: academia is too narrow, fragmented, and overspecialized, and generally irrelevant to management; managers often do not have the time or expertise to pursue and understand the relevant scientific information produced; there are fundamental cultural differences among these groups with very different goals, motivations, and reward systems; and environmental policy is based on much more than scientific information (and often in complete disregard for that information even when it exists). Good scientific information often does not reach the managers or policy makers. Solutions include: changing the academic reward system to recognize influences on participatory problem solving; breaking down disciplinary walls in academia for more interdisciplinary thinking; more effective communication among managers, policy makers, and academics before studies are pursued; and changes in institutional cultures so that effective and timely problem solving--rather than satisfying bureaucratic objectives--is the goal. This will require personal commitments by courageous individuals to counter the accepted trends and thinking in the respective organizations, individuals who will serve as leaders and role models for institutional change.