Dear Marmam folks,
I wanted to share an article I’ve just had published,
another take on the social side of marine mammal conservation, appearing in Policy
Sciences. The article will appear in the print edition of the journal early
next year, but is now available in its “Online First” edition. The
citation and abstract are as follows:
Wallace, R.L. and K.A. Semmens. 2009. Social and
institutional challenges in species and ecosystem conservation: an appraisal of
the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. Policy Sciences (Online First
edition): http://www.springerlink.com/content/fh322291604q8876/.
Abstract: In the pantheon of U.S. environmental law, only
one federal statute—the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972—has
created an independent oversight agency with explicit authority to conduct
appraisals of and make recommendations on all regulatory agency actions under
the law. That agency, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, is the subject of our
analysis. Using a semi-structured survey and participant observation, we assess
the commission’s operations under its legislative mandate, using criteria
from the literature on policy-oriented professionalism. Our findings indicate a
dichotomy between the Commission’s oversight of other agencies’
marine mammal programs and the manner in which it self-evaluates, learns, and
evolves on the basis of its experience, with strongly pragmatic approaches to
its appraisal of other agencies’ programs, contrasted with weak appraisal
of its own operations.
Please contact me if you’re interested in a pdf of the
paper.
Sincerely,
Rich Wallace
--
Richard
L. Wallace, Ph.D.
Associate
Professor
Environmental
Studies Program
Ursinus
College
P.O.
Box 1000
Collegeville,
PA 19426
(610)
409-3730
(610)
409-3660 fax