Ethics primer for university students intending to become natural resources managers and administrators

Natural resources managers and administrators frequently face problems which have ethical dimensions. This paper is intended to help students learn how to become more comfortable and sophisticated with ethical aspects of their management studies, to learn to include ethical tool more in their decision making, and consequently to become better prepared to manage resources later placed in their care. Many of us realize that ethical questions are fundamental to our work. Most of us feel that we have an adequate understanding of and ability to distinguish between right and wrong behaviors. But we are unable to discuss ethical ideas fluently and we feel insufficiently well prepared to include them in public forums where management alternatives are discussed. A primer, discussing and illustrating a small number of basic concepts and principles, will not make philosophers of us but it can give us basic building blocks and sufficient confidence that we can continue to grow in our study of and our abilities to use those ideas