Legal problems and powers inherent in ecosystem management

摘要

The idea of ecosystem management is elusive, but it is not nearly as novel as many have assumed. There are difficulties inherent both in the lack of semantic precision and the multiple ownerships faced by ecosystem management. There are precedents for regulatory systems that transcend sovereign and ownership boundaries. At the federal level, Congress has adequate constitutional power to ordain ecosystem management. Exercise of that power will rarely if ever constitute a taking. Congress implicitly has authorized the federal land-management agencies to manage for ecosystem sustainability within reservation borders, but federal agencies lack power to force ecosystem restraints on adjoining landowners.