Drivers influencing adaptive management: a retrospective evaluation of water quality decisions in South East Queensland (Australia).

There are strong parallels between Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and Adaptive Management (AM); both focus on a cycle of continuous improvement through planning, doing, checking and acting and they both enable the modification of management practices based on monitoring. AM is a science-based structure for natural resource management. The strength of AM is that it brings a scientific approach to the management of complex biological, ecological, economical and social processes and that is what agriculture is. EMS can be based on an international standard. A manager using EMS identifies likely environmental impacts and legal responsibilities and implements and reviews changes and improvements in a structured way. EMS was developed so it could be used in all business sectors. The complexity of issues facing agricultural managers can provide a challenge to the application of EMS within that sector, however at the same time the process involved in developing an EMS can assist greatly in reducing and clarifying the complexity. An understanding and application of AM can also assist the application of EMS in agriculture. Importantly, in both AM and EMS the modifications are continual and can be determined mid-course. This chapter draws on an analysis of a group of 17 agricultural EMS case studies as examples of adaptive management in an industry that uses natural resources. Adaptive Management and Environmental Management Systems Why Introduce EMS in a Book on Adaptive Management? Chapter 2 describes the components of adaptive management (AM), and provides a framework and a set of operational methods for application to complex natural Chapter 12 Environmental Management Systems as Adaptive Natural Resource Management: Case Studies from Agriculture George Wilson, Melanie Edwards, and Genevieve Carruthers G. Wilson and M. Edwards Australian Wildlife Services, Canberra, ACT G. Carruthers NSW Department of Primary Industry, Wollongbar, NSW C. Allan and G.H. Stankey (eds.), Adaptive Environmental Management: 209 A Practitioner’s Guide, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 210 G. Wilson et al. resources management problems. Thus AM is used when impacting factors are so complex there is no clear management path to ‘solve the problem’. The application of AM to agriculture is a particular application in which the ‘problem’ is how to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production and enhance sustainability of the natural resource. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a tool with many similarities to AM and there is a growing interest in its implementation in the agricultural sector.

Developing Effective Partnerships in Natural Resource Management

On improving the science and practice of riparian restoration

This paper illustrates the opportunity for conservation offered by linking traditional agroecological knowledge and advances in adaptive management theory and practice. Drawing on examples from the Banawa-Marawola region of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, a suite of traditional resource management practices premised on principles of adaptive management are identified and assessed, including: (1) resource management practices and regulations that are associated with the dynamics of complex systems; (2) procedural, planning and decision-making processes that foster learning; (3) sanctions and taboos that act as social mechanisms for the management and conservation of natural resources; and (4) ceremonies and social interactions that promote cultural internalization of the various practices, procedures and mechanisms. In addition, an emerging socio-political movement in the Banawa-Marawola region is explored. Premised on the strengthening of traditional rights and practices, the nascent Kamalise movement potentially provides the socio-political, institutional and organizational context needed to link traditional agroecological knowledge and adaptive management with broader conservation goals. Based on this analysis, two opportunities to enhance conservation in the region are identified: first, maintaining traditional agroecological systems and the associated adaptive resource management strategies used by local groups, and second, building upon the Kamalise movement to forge conservation alliances among communities, non-government and government organizations in which locally-evolved adaptive resource management strategies can be effectively applied. Both opportunities to combine traditional knowledge, adaptive management and conservation, however, are linked to the development aspirations of traditional groups: self-determination, acquisition of land rights and controlling the impacts of changes in livelihood.

Chapter Eleven Modelling and Monitoring Environmental Outcomes in Adaptive Management

This article describes the adaptive participatory approach that was adopted to develop an ecosystem services framework for planning and natural resource management in South East Queensland (SEQ) Australia. SEQ is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia, placing strong development pressures on ecosystems and the environment. The SEQ Ecosystem Services Project addresses the need to protect and enhance ecosystems in the region, contributing to the general well-being of the population. The key aim of the Project has been to develop an ecosystem services framework (the SEQ Ecosystem Services Framework or simply the Framework) and incorporate it in policy and planning relevant to the SEQ region. The Framework developed is now officially recognized by the Queensland and local governments in policy and planning documents and in State of the Region reporting. The Framework is based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), with modifications that make it more suitable for application at the regional scale and for the particular conditions of SEQ. The Project has been coordinated by a non-government organization in collaboration with government, universities, other non-government organizations, business and industry. This article describes the important features of the approach, such as the direct participation of experts and/or stakeholders (more than 160 in all); the use of relatively simple systems models based on subjective expert judgements about causal connections among key variables; transparency of results; maps to support spatial planning; and the ability to revise the baseline information as the outcomes of management and planning decisions take place.

Although adaptive management has been widely discussed in the fields of ecology and conservation biology for decades, its incorporation into natural resource management in the United States is relatively recent. It is increasingly recognized as a valuable approach to natural resource and environmental management challenges that involve high degrees of uncertainty. The legal rules and requirements that drive environmental protection efforts in the United States, however, are often considered barriers to successful implementation of adaptive management. This chapter explores the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of adaptive management into current legal and regulatory frameworks in the United States. It summarizes current literature on adaptive management and law, with particular emphasis on scholarship that highlights the challenges associated with incorporating adaptive management into current institutional arrangements. It then provides some basic background regarding the overall structure of government in the United States and explains the critical role of the executive and judicial branches in implementation and enforcement of adaptive management plans. A summary of current federal court decisions regarding how agencies are using adaptive management is provided to highlight the challenges associated with balancing the need for administrative flexibility with the competing need for legal enforceability. Finally, we conclude with some suggestions for more successful incorporation of adaptive management by federal agencies in the United States.

Australia’s future landscapes will be shaped by global climatic, economic, and cultural drivers. Landscapes evolve. They are manifestations of the complex negotiations between nature and cultures, over millennia. In the Anthropocene, humans are the dominant evolutionary force reshaping the biosphere. Landscape management involves all human activities and interventions that change the forms and functions of landscapes. It also involves the ways we learn about, and understand the world, and our place in it. Responses to climate change are driving changes in natural resources policy, research and management. Building capability for large-scale, adaptive management is critical in an era of global change. By rigorously examining and learning from recent experience—bioregional conservation planning, natural resource management (NRM), landcare, and water reform—Australia can build capacity for integrated and adaptive resource management. Climate change compounds existing stressors on ecosystems. It adds complexity and presents new challenges for integrated assessment, planning, and management of natural resources. Given the dynamic nature of the ecosystems, static conservation paradigms and stationary hydrology models are increasingly redundant. In the face of inherent complexity and uncertainty, ‘predict and control’ strategies are likely to be less useful. Adaptive approaches are called for, due to the complex relationships and non-linear feedbacks between social, ecological, and climatic systems. Australia should invest in building professional and community capacity. Australia’s scientific and professional capacity in natural resources provides useful foundations, but substantially increased investment is called for. Research should be focused on guiding and influencing management at large scales and on avoiding undesirable thresholds or tipping points in complex ecological systems. Cultural and governance aspects are emphasised as central to effective adaptation strategies, because landscape management is an intergenerational, societal challenge that requires participatory, adaptive learning approaches.

Key issues and drivers affecting coastal and marine resource decisions: Participatory management strategy evaluation to support adaptive management

This research study investigated the proposition that regional level landscape protection could be achieved on a river catchment basis through a voluntary cooperative working arrangement of local authorities exercising their statutory planning responsibilities within the traditional planning framework. This approach required local authorities to successfully address a range of contemporary environmental management issues of regional significance that had a strong correlation with selected national State of Environment (SoE) key sustainability and associated 'quality of life' issues. The study explored three main research themes associated with this proposition that are considered to be critical dimensions of environmental management particularly within the emergent paradigm of sustainable development. The first theme considered the appropriateness of planning as a method of managing contemporary and emergent environmental issues. The second explored the validity of addressing these issues at the regional scale. The final theme considered whether cooperative arrangements involving local government could achieve higher order regional outcomes and thereby eliminate the need for the establishment of a fourth tier of governance with associated institutional and administrative support. The qualitative research method adopted for the investigation was a longitudinal participatory action research study that utilised a single intrinsic case study. The geographic research setting for the intrinsic case study was the Logan-Albert Rivers catchment of South East Queensland (SEQ) and comprised some 3,740 square kilometers. An enhanced six phase cooperative planning model was utilised as a descriptive and evaluation framework to examine the Logan-Albert experience in terms of the research question. It extends the generic Collaborative Planning Model (CPM) by acknowledging additional phases that involve the preliminary demonstration of the need for a cooperative undertaking to potential participants, and a separate phase to acknowledge the business end of the actual cooperative planning activity. The enhanced CPM also highlights the importance of incorporating an adaptive management approach into the implementation and review phase. The review of the Logan-Albert case study has confirmed the initiative as a working example of the CPM that involved a range of cooperative and collaborative planning undertakings. The triad organisational structure of a management committee, technical support group and community consultative committee exemplify a joint bottom up-lateral regional cooperative planning and management model. It provided horizontal linkages between local authorities and vertical linkages between the community and two levels of government and their respective agencies. It was required to function as a partnership between existing management institutions,the community and the private sector in order to collectively identify, then address, the regionally significant environmental management issues within a catchment of mutual interest to the partners. Applying this enhanced CPM across a longitudinal study spanning some eleven years allowed for a detailed insight into the changing circumstances and attitudes to cooperative planning by a number of participants, particularly the five local authorities within the catchment. A major advantage of this approach was the utilisation of the existing structures of local government and its management mechanisms such as the statutory planning system. The experience of the Logan-Albert initiative has established that contemporary environmental management issues of regional significance can be identified and managed for the common good through the cooperative planning efforts of local authorities based on a natural unit such as a river catchment. These catchment issues became the prioritised focus of the collaborative planning effort which led to the joint development of policy for coordinated implementation by the participating voluntary group of local authorities. This initiative was directly influential in getting greater focus on the river system and on river related issues particularly in the policies and statutory planning schemes of individual local authorities. The original CPM was a minimalist approach characterised by ad hoc arrangements supported by limited contributions and commitment from the participating members. Acceptance of the cooperative approach was slow and participants adopted a very cautious series of stepped levels of increased cooperative commitment. At the conclusion of the case study review period (1999), the Logan-Albert initiative had moved up the steps of cooperative effort to the point where it now reflected a higher order of cooperative-collaborative undertaking than at its genesis in 1989. These distinct levels of increased cooperation represent a major departure from the uniform collaboration that is normally assumed with the generic CPM. The initiative emerged as a formal partnership in the form of a standing sub-committee of SouthROC, one of the official Regional Organisation of Councils in the SEQ region and a partner in the recognized regional planning processes. This legitimised the outcomes of the cooperative planning process and increased their standing and acceptance amongst the agencies and groups who were expected to complete their implementation. The initiative evolved to a higher order of collaboration through a series of experiments with community engagement that increased the members trust and confidence in bringing the community into a fuller partnership. This was evident in the establishment of a consultative committee from the catchment community that was formed with gradually increased, although modest, empowerment and representation on the central management committee. This shift can be attributed to a process of adaptive management and learning-by-doing experienced by the core decision-makers of the Logan-Albert initiative. The learning experience allowed members to grow in confidence and understanding, which subsequently allowed them to adapt their corporate positions for the common good. This eventually led to the development of a joint catchment-wide policy framework that was ready for implementation by individual local authorities through their separate statutory planning instruments. In this manner, the local authorities could retain control of the process and therefore maintain their management autonomy. It also meant however, that the joint catchment-wide policy could be implemented in a coordinated fashion throughout all local authority areas in the catchment. The initiative was now placed well in front of the previous minimalist information exchange function that characterised its formative period. The Logan-Albert initiative has demonstrated that new subnational levels of governance are not required to address contemporary regional scale management challenges. It is clear that voluntary groupings of local authorities can address regionally significant environmental issues. It has also demonstrated that traditional planning can reinvent itself to respond to the array of regional scale challenges typical of those that confronted this catchment group. This research has identified a clear mandate for traditional planning to embrace change, particularly the emergent paradigm shift noted from the literature, in order to actively contribute to the address of contemporary environmental and landscape management issues of regional significance. The research also demonstrates the benefits of emergent planning processes, in particular, cooperative and collaborative planning. It provides an insight into cooperative planning processes that attempt to engage the community at the scale of a river catchment. This has helped to define the changing role of the professional planner and the implications for profession planning practice, planning education and local government practices. The outcomes of this work have defined the importance of the regional perspective and focus, especially as an appropriate scale for addressing certain key sustainability issues. Importantly, it has provided a clearer understanding of the political context for cooperative planning and the decision-making processes that operate at local government level in regional collaborative forums. Within the limitations and recommended enhancements noted, this study has concluded that a voluntary cooperative coalition of existing local authorities within a river catchment can manage regionally significant environmental issues through their traditional planning frameworks.

11.1 AN ECOSYSTEM SERVICES-BASED APPROACH TO INTEGRATED REGIONAL CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT The importance of ecosystem services to sustainable development and the well-being of communities is well recognised and has been emphasised in many international policies and programmes (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; European Commission et al . 2012). In recognition of this importance, stakeholders (e.g. government, non-government, business, industry, community, Traditional Owners, researchers) across South East Queensland (Australia) came together to develop the South East Queensland Ecosystem Services Framework, a tool to identify, measure, and value the ecosystem services provided by the region (Maynard et al . 2010, 2012). The Framework, which operationalises an ecosystem services-based approach, is described briefly in this chapter; also given is an example of the Framework's application to better align land use planning and on-ground catchment management. Box 11.1 Evolution of integrated catchment management in South East Queensland, Australia • Community-led watershed management was underway in the Lockyer catchment, the ‘food bowl’ of the South East Queensland region, in the early 1980s. • Integrated Catchment Management was officially adopted as a natural resource management programme in the state of Queensland in the early 1990s. • Integrated Catchment Management emerged from concerns relating to the degradation of natural resources; conflicting government policies; and increasing public expectations for involvement in decision-making. • The national Regional Natural Resource Management Body network established by the Australian government evolved from these initiatives. • Each region has a Regional Body whose primary role is to work with stakeholders to better manage the natural resources of the region. ‘Integrated Catchment Management’ takes a catchment-scale approach to the management of natural resources (Murray Darling Basin Commission 2001; Falkenmark 2004). Catchments are explicitly defined structures; they represent the natural order of landscape processes and provide spatial gradients and thus water pathways and soil generation profiles. These gradients determine the vegetation cover and ecological structure of the catchment, which in turn influence the spatial organisation of human settlements (Priscoli 1999).

The ecosystem approach—as endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) in 2000—is a strategy for holistic, sustainable, and equitable natural resource management, to be implemented via the 12 Malawi Principles. These principles describe the need to manage nature in terms of dynamic ecosystems, while fully engaging with local peoples. It is an ambitious concept. Today, the term is common throughout the research and policy literature on environmental management. However, multiple meanings have been attached to the term, resulting in confusion. We reviewed references to the ecosystem approach from 1957 to 2012 and identified 3 primary uses: as an alternative to ecosystem management or ecosystem-based management; in reference to an integrated and equitable approach to resource management as per the CBD; and as a term signifying a focus on understanding and valuing ecosystem services. Although uses of this term and its variants may overlap in meaning, typically, they do not entirely reflect the ethos of the ecosystem approach as defined by the CBD. For example, there is presently an increasing emphasis on ecosystem services, but focusing on these alone does not promote decentralization of management or use of all forms of knowledge, both of which are integral to the CBD’s concept. We highlight that the Malawi Principles are at risk of being forgotten. To better understand these principles, more effort to implement them is required. Such efforts should be evaluated, ideally with comparative approaches, before allowing the CBD’s concept of holistic and socially engaged management to be abandoned or superseded. It is possible that attempts to implement all 12 principles together will face many challenges, but they may also offer a unique way to promote holistic and equitable governance of natural resources. Therefore, we believe that the CBD’s concept of the ecosystem approach demands more attention.La Necesidad de Desenredar Conceptos Clave del Argot Ambiente-EstrategiaResumenLa estrategia ambiental – como es promocionada por la Convención Biológica sobre Diversidad en 2000 – es una estrategia para un manejo holístico, sustentable y equitativo de recursos naturales, que habrá de implementarse por vía de los 12 Principios de Malawi. Estos principios describen la necesidad de manejar la naturaleza en términos de ecosistemas dinámicos, mientras se compromete totalmente con las personas locales. Es un concepto ambicioso. Hoy en día, el término es común en la investigación y la literatura de políticas sobre el manejo ambiente. Sin embargo, se han relacionado múltiples significados con el término, lo que resulta en confusión. Revisamos referencias a la estrategia ambiental de 1957 a 2012 e identificamos tres usos principales: como una alternativa para manejo ambiental o basado en ecosistemas; en referencia a una estrategia integrada y equitativa para el manejo de recursos según la CBD; y como un término que indica un enfoque en el entendimiento y la valuación de los servicios ambientales. Aunque los usos de este término y sus variantes pueden traslaparse en su significado, típicamente no reflejan en su totalidad los valores de la estrategia ambiental como fue definida por la CBD. Por ejemplo, actualmente hay un énfasis creciente en los servicios ambientales, pero enfocarse solamente en estos no promueve la descentralización del manejo o el uso de todas las formas de conocimiento, siendo ambas integrales para el concepto de la CBD. Resaltamos que los Principios de Malawi están en riesgo de ser olvidados. Para entender mejor estos principios, se requiere de más esfuerzo para implementarlos. Dichos esfuerzos deben ser evaluados, idóneamente con estrategias comparativas, antes de permitir que el concepto de la CBD de manejo holístico y comprometido socialmente sea abandonado o reemplazado. Es posible que los intentos por implementar los 12 principios juntos enfrentarán muchos obstáculos, pero también pueden ofrecer una forma única de promover el gobierno holístico y equitativo de los recursos naturales. Así, creemos que el concepto de estrategia ambiental de la CBD exige mayor atención.

A daptive management is widely applied to natural resources management (Holling 1973; Walters and Holling 1990). Adaptive management can be generally defined as an iterative decision-making process that incorporates formulation of management objectives, actions designed to address these objectives, monitoring of results, and repeated adaptation of management until desired results are achieved (Brown and MacLeod 1996; Savory and Butterfield 1999). However, adaptive management is often criticized because very few projects ever complete more than one cycle, resulting in little adaptation and little knowledge gain (Lee 1999; Walters 2007). One significant criticism is that adaptive management is often used as a justification for undertaking actions with uncertain outcomes or as a surrogate for the development of specific, measurable indicators and monitoring programs (Lee 1999; Ruhl 2007). In this paper, we argue for a more holistic and systematic approach to adaptive management. We define holistic adaptive land management (HALM) as a refinement of adaptive management that requires (1) a process-based understanding of ecosystem dynamics and ecological mechanisms, (2) a willingness and ability to identify and consider all possible management alternatives, (3) rigorous monitoring of management effects, and (4) constant adaptation of management based on monitoring data and associated observations. Thus, HALM requires both…

Towards adaptive coastal management: Lessons from a “legal storm” in Byron Shire, Australia

The complexity of interactions in socio-ecological systems makes it very difficult to plan and implement policies successfully. Traditional environmental management and assessment techniques produce unsatisfactory results because they often ignore facets of system structure that underlie complexity: delays, feedbacks, and non-linearities. Assuming that causes are linked in a linear chain, they concentrate on technological developments ("hard path") as the only solutions to environmental problems. Adaptive Management is recognized as a promising alternative approach directly addressing links between social and ecological systems and involving stakeholders in the analysis and decision process. This "soft path" requires special tools to facilitate collaboration between "experts" and stakeholders in analyzing complex situations and prioritizing policies and actions. We have applied conceptual modeling to increase communication, understanding and commitment in the project of seven NGOs "Sustainable Regional Development in the Odra Catchment". The main goal was to help our NGO partners to facilitate their efforts related to developing sustainable policies and practices to respond to large-scale challenges (EU accession, global changes in climate and economy) to their natural, economic and socio-cultural heritages. Among the variety of sustainability issues explored by these NGOs, two (extensive agricultural practices and "green" local products) were examined by using Adaptive Management (AM) as a framework that would link analysis, discussion, research, actions and monitoring. Within the AM framework the project coordinators used tools of systems analysis (Mental Model Mapping) to facilitate discussions in which NGO professionals and local stakeholders could graphically diagram and study their understanding of what factors interacted and how they affect the region's sustainability. These discussions produced larger-scale Regional Sustainability Models as well as more detailed sub-models of particular factors, processes, and feedback loops that appear critical to a sustainable future. The Regional Sustainability Model was used to identify a subset of key interacting factors (variables). For each variable, several sustainability indicators were suggested. The growing understanding and acceptance of the AM framework and systems analysis created a momentum both locally and within the region, which makes continued successful use of these indicators quite likely. In contrast to expert-driven projects that inject outside knowledge into a local context, this project established a broad basis for stakeholder-driven discussion that is articulated into goals, objectives, conceptual models, and indicators. The ability to learn and adapt in the AM framework increases the capacity to innovate and find policies and practices that enhance resilience and sustainability in a world in transition.