Environmental Leadership

Book excerpt: The need for environmental leadership - the ability to cause and guide positive change toward a better future - has never been greater. While some may claim that leaders are born, not made, this book shows that leadership can be learned, and that overt leadership preparation should be made an integral part of professional education and experience. Environmental Leadership captures an approach to teaching leadership skills that has been used successfully at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies - one of the nation's leading environmental studies programs. It contains a series of personal accounts by a diverse array of successful environmental leaders who discuss their path to leadership, the skills they found useful, and their view of the characteristics and contexts that are important to environmental leadership. By presenting the personal stories of numerous leaders and encouraging them to describe their experiences, the editors demonstrate what they consider to be the soul of environmental leadership - the incredible breadth of both the responses and challenges that environmental leaders face. Environmental Leadership is an important resource for all environmental professionals who seek better stewardship of our environment and natural resources.