KEY TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

(from "ISANA" No. 13, 1995)

The Honorable Don Young
 Chairman, Committee on Resources, U.S. House of Representatives


Sustainable development is a catch phrase that is heard a lot in Washington, D.C. these days. This is a resource management concept which recognizes that renewable resources can be harvested without endangering long-term survival of the resource.

While the concept is gaining support in this country and in Congress, there are still those who resist the harvest of some of our resources whether it is harmful to the resource or not.

Another concept discussed a lot in management debate is wise use. This concept is closely related to the idea of sustainable development. Proponents of the wise use movement argue that resources of a nation can and should be used for the benefit of the nation and its people.

In order for our renewable natural resources to be managed for long-term sustainability, it is important to have three things: good data, good science to interpret the data for making sound decisions, and good management and enforcement. Without any of these three, the long-term viability of the resource may be compromised.

The U.S. Congress is currently working to reauthorize the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the law which governs domestic fisheries. It is important, not only for the health of the resource, but also for the health of the commercial fishing industry and coastal fishing communities, to manage the nation's fishery resources for the long term.

In recent years, the U.S. has experienced resource depletion in some fisheries, the most recent and most reported on is the situation with New England groundfish stocks. The cause of this resource depletion may be a number of things including loss of habitat, overfishing, increased predation, or changes in temperature and climate.

Fishery resources are vitally important to many regions of the country and the protection of the stocks is important to keeping many coastal communities alive. The Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act tries to maintain the balance of allowing the sustained harvest of our fishery resources as well as protecting the stocks from overfishing. These concepts are transferable to other renewable natural resources; however, other domestic resource laws do not always recognize that development and conservation can coexist.

In the United States, bowhead whales are harvested by Alaskan natives for subsistence purposes at a sustainable level. Care is taken to determine the population of the stocks being harvested, the level of acceptable harvest is carefully determined, and rigorous monitoring and enforcement measures are followed. The villages which participate in the hunt for the bowhead must and do continue to remain concerned about the long-term health of the stocks and treat the resource with the respect it requires.

This combination of good data, careful scientific use of the data, and rigorous monitoring have allowed the sustainable harvest for subsistence purposes for these Alaskan natives in the same manner that has allowed fishermen to harvest fishery resources in most areas of the country without harming the long-term health of the resource.

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