Challenges Facing the Adoption of Ecosystem Health as a Core Component in Professional Curricula

Abstract

While there has been considerable success in introducing ecosystem health into professional curricula at a number of universities, there have been significant challenges to its introduction. There are difficulties relating to pervading attitudes within universities. Ecosystem health deals with uncertainty whereas most other disciplines cherish certainty. Ecosystem health is often considered a “soft science” lacking in specifics. The enormity and complexity of ecosystem health problems are often perceived as discouraging and impossible to solve. The university structure can present challenges in that transdisciplinary problem solving requires the participation of many different departments, with several levels of approval required. There are also challenges in the teaching of ecosystem health given its extremely broad focus, limited experience in ecosystem health curricula, and almost no experience in effective evaluation of a field that emphasizes attitudes as much as it does information. This article describes each of these challenges, draws on the experience of the conference, and provides potential solutions to overcoming these challenges.