ABSTRACT
Section I.4 focuses on policy goals and objectives — the explicit policy targets that provide meaning and definition to the platitudes that typically dominate much of the political discourse on ecological policy. To move beyond the realm of policy platitudes (e.g., protect our planet, assure sustainable development, embrace smart growth, implement community-based environmental protection, perpetuate our cherished natural legacy, restore degraded ecosystems, achieve ecosystem health) and toward policy evaluation and implementation requires that society, through its mechanisms of governance, decide which societal values and preferences to adopt. Societal values and preferences are the criteria society uses to select from among opposing policy goals and objectives.
