ABSTRACT
To the extent that the market governs the livelihood prospects of most (if not all) environmental managers today, understanding its role in relation to multi-layered Environmental Management (EM) is imperative. The market is a means by which environmental managers exchange goods (and services) in the pursuit of their livelihood interests. The market has been associated with the policies and practices of environmental managers ever since those managers sought to exchange the environmental resources that they extracted or produced for other resources or services. Scarcity may also be culturally constructed, insofar as the availability of selected resources may be conditioned by prevailing environmental worldviews and attitudes of environmental managers. Yet, environmental managers are not equal in the market. It is critical to appreciate the unequal power of different environmental managers as they become integrated into the market. In this regard, it is useful to distinguish broadly between environmental managers as “setters”, “shapers” or “receivers” of market prices.
