Ecosystems, Adaptive Management

Abstract

Adaptive management is an approach to natural resource management that emphasizes learning through management based upon the philosophy that knowledge is incomplete and much of what is thought to be known is actually wrong, but despite uncertainty, managers and policymakers must act 1. Although the concept of adaptive management has resonated with resource management scientists and practitioners following its formal introduction in 1978 2, it has and continues to remain little practiced and much misunderstood. Misunderstanding is largely based upon the belief that adaptive management is what management has always been, a trial and error attempt to improve management outcomes. But unlike a trial and error approach, adaptive management has explicit structure, including a careful elucidation of goals, identification of alternative management objectives and hypotheses of causation, and procedures for the collection of data followed by evaluation and reiteration.