Community and forestry: continuities in the sociology of natural resources

The Social Behavior and Natural Resources Series is about human adaptation to natural resources and the constraints these resources place upon institutions and work and play in everyday life. Natural resources, after all, are products of society. The very definition of natural resources arises from the interaction of population, culture, and the biophysical environment.

Biological and physical scientists are providing us with a clearer picture of the nature of species and habitats and the requirements of systems to function under varying management regimes dedicated to conservation and preservation. Social scientists are providing complementary information about the human species, our habitat, and how social systems respond to a wide range of resource management

policies. The integration of social science with biological and physical science is the focus of this series. The present book is about the relationships of human com munities to forest environments.

Resource management issues are human problems which can only be solved with social science knowledge in combination with knowledge from the other sciences. The utilization of these different types of knowledge within the resource management arena depends upon the establishment of a partnership between scientists and managers. Sound management requires agreement on what infor mation is pertinent, how information should be collected, and how information should be employed in decision making.