Adaptive Management and Robust Strategies

What is Adaptive Management?

Adaptive management at its simplest can be understood as ‘learning by doing’. It is an approach to resource management that uses management decisions as a tool to learn about ecosystem functioning. Adaptive management differs from traditional approaches that use best available knowledge to make risk adverse decisions. Adaptive management aims to identify and embrace uncertainty and to use management actions as a process to learn more about the system.

Adaptive management is useful in the context of climate change, where the world around us is changing and unpredictable. An adaptive approach is resilient (add link) and can cope with change. It is a useful approach to decisions made with imperfect knowledge and high degrees of uncertainty. The aim is to reduce uncertainty over time through a structured iterative approach that involves monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment of actions based on what has been learned. Adaptive management works best within a context of institutional flexibility.

Adaptive management was developed by ecologists C.S. Holling and Carl J. Walters, at the University of British Columbia in the 1970s. It was initially used for fishery management and has been widely embraced in natural resource management.

Where can I learn more about adaptive management?

Key readings:

Holling, C. S. (ed.) (1978). Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management. Chichester: Wiley.

Lee, Kai N. (1993). Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics for the Environment. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Walters, Carl (1986). Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources. New York: Macmillan.

Key Website resources:

Resilience Alliance at http://www.resalliance.org/600.php