/ Scholars, government practitioners, and environmentalists are increasingly supportive of collaborative, ecosystem-based approaches to natural resource management. However, few researchers have focused their attention on examining the important administrative and institutional challenges surrounding ecosystem-based management. This paper describes how the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework can be used to better understand the institutional arrangements used to implement ecosystem-based management programs. Some of the observations emanating from previous research on institutional design and performance are also discussed. The paper's central argument is that if this new resource management paradigm is to take hold and flourish, researchers and practitioners must pay closer attention to the questions surrounding institutional design and performance. This should help improve our understanding of the relationship between science and human values in decision making. It should also help researchers avoid making faulty policy recommendations and improve the implementation of ecosystem-based management programs.KEY WORDS: Ecosystem management; Watershed management; Common pool resources; Implementation; Institutional analysis; Evaluation; Policy analysishttp://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00267/bibs/24n4p449.html