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Humans Within NorthwestAtlantic Ecosystems: AnOverview of Uses & ValuesJay Odell and Kate Killerlain MorrisonIntroductionEach of the assessment’s habitat and speciesfocused chapters (2-12) includes a“Human Interactions” section summarizingthe environmental stresses and impactsof specific human uses. Review of thesesections reveals some common themes– pollution, climate change effects, fishing,coastal habitat loss, energy production,recreational activities, and waterbornetransportation can all have negative impactson multiple habitats and species.CHAPTER13However, eliminating all of these impactsis not a sensible or realistic goal – managementgoals need to encompass both socio-economicand ecosystem conservationobjectives. Ecosystem based management approaches offer promise for simultaneous achievement of goals for sustainingliving marine resources, consumptive human uses, and human health and well-being. However, in addition to detailedinformation on marine habitats and species, ecosystem based management requires detailed information on howdifferent human communities (geographic and sectoral) perceive, use and value natural resources.It is now widely held that the focus of natural resource management is people rather than natural resources as it isprimarily human behavior rather than nature that is being “managed”. Experts continually recommend “…an integratedapproach to management that considers the entire ecosystem, including humans…to maintain an ecosystem in a healthy,productive and resilient condition so that it can provide the services humans want and need… (emphasis added)” (SCS2005). The assessment has been developed with a goal of furthering understanding on how human activities, bothexisting and proposed, are linked to natural resources--but much more work remains to be done.The Conservancy’s Marine Ecoregional Assessments have recently begun to include more socio-economic information.The field of socio-economics is concerned with a broad range of issues involving the interaction between society, politicsand culture and the relationship between individuals, the choices they make and the economic market.© Kerry Crisley/TNCNorthwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregional Assessment • Phase 1 Report 13-