When experts disagree (and better science won’t help much): Using structured deliberations to support endangered species recovery planning

When experts disagree (and better science won't help much): using structured deliberations to support endangered species recovery planning.

Progress on recovery plans to conserve endangered species is often blocked due to the lack of an effective framework that technical experts and other knowledgeable stakeholders can use to examine areas of agreement or disagreement about the anticipated effects of management actions. Multi-party, multi-interest resource management deliberations, although increasingly common, are difficult in the...

Using structured decision making to help implement a precautionary approach to endangered species management.

Endangered species protection is a significant risk management concern throughout North America. An extensive conceptual literature emphasizes the role to be played by precautionary approaches. Risk managers, typically working in concert with concerned stakeholders, frequently cite the concept as key to their efforts to prevent extinctions. Little has been done, however, to evaluate the multidi...

Deliberations among Experts and Laity An approach to building planning information systems

The cooperative work process, which involves deliberations between experts and laity, is restricted by its access to spatial and aspatial information. This paper addresses these concerns as to how a planning information system can be fashioned to support such deliberations. In particular, by identifying the kinds of questions that come up in deliberations about institutional knowledge—relations...

Facilitating Recovery of Threatened and Endangered Species

Comparative effectiveness research: what to do when experts disagree about risks

BACKGROUND Ethical issues related to comparative effectiveness research, or research that compares existing standards of care, have recently received considerable attention. In this paper we focus on how Ethics Review Committees (ERCs) should evaluate the risks of comparative effectiveness research. MAIN TEXT We discuss what has been a prominent focus in the debate about comparative effective...