The philosophy of ecosystem management (EM) has come to dominate the field of environmental law. Even in the absence of explicit adoption of EM processes in legislation, agency practices tend to reflect its premises: that the best approach to environmental governance is to understand, measure, control, and change ecosystems to produce the highest and best environment in human terms.

The desirability of EM is so well established as to be considered almost self-evident. It is an ideal process for massaging the clash between commercial and social needs of growing communities and the political imperative of "being green." EM's legitimacy is difficult to challenge, in part because the term creates the perception of an either/or choice: the only alternative to ecosystem management must be ecosystem mismanagement. But that is not correct. EM is one of several possible approaches to environmental governance. Its superiority has yet to be established, and it rests on premises that are of questionable validity. Below are 10 myths of ecosystem management.