Essay Example on Often decision making process

Introduction Often decision making process is very subjective involving various thought processes time frames and complex conversations Different people ascertain available facts and data in different fashion There are various factors that influence an individuals decision making such as political beliefs ethnic strata language and economic disparity For instance in order to come to a decision to safeguard a particular piece of land could involve discussions from different perspectives like if the land is for commercial activities agricultural sector or environmental stability People with the authority to make decisions develop personal beliefs and values relating to environment over the period of time through different life experiences This may lead to confrontations while making decisions and hence adds further confusions in frameworks of policy making In other words inferior decisions may result when goals are not clearly specified Some people will also have more at stake in a decision outcome than others There are therefore many issues around who are involved in decision making processes and how they participate 1 

Ineffective definitions classifications and application of environmental entities contribute mistakes generally through poor definition of the ultimate ends of management goals or the mixing of means and ends or both 2 In a world which is majorly defined by gross domestic product GDP growth the significance of environmental strategy is not far behind In fact with the passage of time environmental sustainability has penetrated deep into the world economy so much so that any economic policy is incomplete without thorough research on environmental management According to Boyd and Banzhaf 3 if one confuses goals with the means of achieving them then decision making and related analyses are further muddled Most obviously this may involve double counting in economic analyses The present research article emphasizes on category mistakes in environmental management and policy making A widely cited article Failing and Gregory 4 describe ten mistakes that may compromise environmental resource management In the article Category mistakes A barrier to effective environmental management 2 the authors propose an elegant and intricate solution to challenges faced by environmental decision making and planning 

They further elaborate on definitions of the categories of things that are relevant to environmental planning and decisions Meiland 5 in their paper comprehensively described the importance of successful development and application of categories that not only provides greater clarity but also helps avoid confusion caused by mixing categories a misconstruction known as a category mistake the placing of an entity in the wrong category This paper is further divided into three sections 1 Categories of Environmental Management Terminologies Definitions and Mistakes 2 Proposed Methodology for improvement of Policymaking Definition and Decisions and 3 Conclusion 1 Categories of Environmental Management Terminologies Definitions and Mistakes Standard policy making bodies such as United Nations UN specifically United Nations Environment Programme UNEP World Wide Fund for Nature and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC throughout the globe use the information they gather to make a wide range of decisions These decisions may affect the ecosystem and change the course of phenomenon associated with environment The framework of standard bodies such as UN serves its broad purposes by employing two overarching principles the precautionary approach and human rights based approach plus Safeguard Standards which are biodiversity conservation resource efficiency and pollution prevention These Safeguard Standards mainly reflect a do no harm commitment but as the implementation of the Framework evolves they will be expanded into a comprehensive do good commitment in line with intention of the UN Environment 6 

As the information piles up leading to formation of a framework such as united nations environment social and economic stability framework the final version of the same does contain shortcomings Hence it becomes rather important to efficiently recognize category mistakes to ensure the universality of policy making Some of the mistakes that should be tackled while forming category definitions related to environmental management are as follows Inconclusive Definitions Most of the times reaching at a vivid conclusion becomes cumbersome because of the fact that different people have diversified opinions about a particular issue Usually policies are formed by extensive discussions which includes communicating varied range of opinions Thus it is no denying that communication indeed plays a significant in forming definitions which lead to policy making It guides the understanding of the issue at hand and problems that underlie them An ineffective communication disrupts the theme of definitions which may lead to ecological crisis Lack of concrete and conclusive definitions give rise to ambiguity in addressing environmental issues When policies are formed on such loose definitions it directly affects environmental management and public engagement For instance the definition of the term biodiversity will have numerous answers depending of which definition takes precedence the selection of appropriate strategy could vary 4 In bunnell s paper 7 the author brings forth the important policy implication of unclear conclusions that is in case the biodiversity term is genetic diversity then some management strategies might become void or in worst case work against safeguarding a particular environmental issue