Redesigning pest management : a social ecology approach

Social ecology provides a broad framework for critically examining the theory and practice of pest management, and the institutional and psychosocial contexts within which all theories and practices are developed and implemented. Such an analysis finds most current theories and practices seriously wanting, but also reveals extensive opportunities for innovation and improvement. The greatest need is for a shift in emphasis from a responsive, symptom-based, linear approach based on biocides and their substitutes to a proactive, holistic approach based on knowledge-intensive, ecosystem design and redesign, and whole systems management (based particularly on the further development of cultural controls). Although this will require broader parallel changes within individuals and throughout society, significant improvement can be made by focusing on small achievable initiatives and their public celebration to facilitate their spread. The developments in pest management being proposed here are regarded as one expression of the ongoing psychosocial evolution of our species.