Teaming with Life: Investing in Science to Understand and Use America's Living211 Capital

摘要

Over the last few decades, a new paradigm has emerged: Improving and protecting211u001eour environment is compatible with growing the Nation's economy. As part of this 211u001eparadigm, we have come to recognize the essenitial linkage between the economy 211u001eand the environment. We now understand that the sustainted bounty of our Nation's 211u001elands and waters and of its native plant and animal communities in the natural 211u001ecapital on which our economy is founded. We also realize that a sound forward-211u001elooking economic strategy requires that we protect this natural capital, rather 211u001ethan damage it and then spend millions or billions of dollars attempting to 211u001erecreate what Nature has already given us. To protect our natural capital, our 211u001eNation's biodiversity and the ecosystems within which it thrives, we need to have 211u001ean extensive and frequently updated environmental knowledge base. This knowledge 211u001ebase is required to evaluate alternative plans for managing biodiversity and 211u001eecosystems as we work to optimize the union between the environmental and the 211u001eeconomy.