Integrated research in natural resources

Roger N. Clark

Integrated research is about achieving holistic understanding of complex biophysical and social issues and problems. It is driven by the need to improve understanding about such systems and to improve resource management by using the results of integrated research processes. Traditional research tends to fragment complex problems, focusing more on the pieces of problems rather than the whole that comprises multiple interrelationships and interactions. The outcome is that a lot is known about the parts (e.g., recreation, fish, and wildlife) but relatively little about how they are interrelated. There seems to be general agreement that integrated questions must drivethe search for integrated understanding, but tradition, inertia, institutional culture, budgets, training, and lack of effective leadership foster reductionism (at worst) or minimal degrees of integration (at best) rather...