Abstract
Collaborative adaptive management merges three essential features of twenty-first century conservation and resource management—science, collaboration, and a focus on results. These features intersect in conservation and resource management contexts characterized by: (1) high degrees of uncertainty; (2) complexity resulting from multiple variables and non-linear interactions; (3) interconnectedness—among issues, across landscapes, and between people and place; and (4) persistent, possibly dramatic, change. In this context, many resource management decisions present communication challenges, information challenges, coordination challenges, and action challenges. Collaboration and adaptive management, in part, are responses to these challenges. Many resource management questions are technical and complex. But policies and project decisions have distributional effects and often involve trade-offs. These effects raise issues about the respective roles of scientists, technical experts, and the public; underscore the relevance of adaptive decision frameworks, and heighten the importance of collaborate decision making. This essay examines collaborative adaptive management in this context from the perspective of a decisionmaker.
Highlights
Uncertainty, complexity, and change characterize the settings in which conservation and natural resource management decisions unfold
With the engagement of multiple public-sector, nonprofit, and private-sector participants, conservation and resource management often “entails producing services with the public more than delivering services to the public” (Thomas 2012, p.86). This decision context has been accompanied by a broadening application and convergence of two decision processes— collaborative decision making and adaptive management
This convergence reflects a response to perceived needs for a tighter intersection of science and decision making, greater pubic engagement in knowledge building and decision making, and improved decision outcomes
Summary
Uncertainty, complexity, and change characterize the settings in which conservation and natural resource management decisions unfold. These questions involve matters of values, policy, and science Within this context, addressing conservation and resource management issues often requires coordinated actions across jurisdictional and ownership boundaries; ongoing learning; and a capacity to alter courses of action in response to new knowledge and dynamic conditions. With the engagement of multiple public-sector, nonprofit, and private-sector participants, conservation and resource management often “entails producing services with the public more than delivering services to the public” (Thomas 2012, p.86) This decision context has been accompanied by a broadening application and convergence of two decision processes— collaborative decision making and adaptive management. This convergence reflects a response to perceived needs for a tighter intersection of science and decision making, greater pubic engagement in knowledge building and decision making, and improved decision outcomes. The term is multidimensional, including structural elements (governance and administration), social capital (mutuality and norms), and agency (organizational autonomy) (Thomson et al 2007)
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