Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusions
The conceptual underpinnings for adaptive management are simple; there will
always be inherent uncertainty and unpredictability in the dynamics and behavior
of complex ecological systems as a result of nonlinear interactions among
components and emergence, yet management decisions must still be made. The
strength of adaptive management is in the recognition and confrontation of such
uncertainty. Rather than ignore uncertainty, or use it to preclude management
actions, adaptive management can foster resilience and flexibility to cope with an
uncertain future, and develop safe-to-fail management approaches that acknowl-
edge inevitable changes and surprises. Since its initial introduction, adaptive
management has been hailed as a solution to endless trial and error approaches to
complex natural resource management challenges. However, it does not produce
easy answers, and it is appropriate in only a subset of natural resource management
problems. Clearly adaptive management has great potential when applied
appropriately.
Future Directions
Adaptive management is increasingly heralded as the future of natural resource
management and has been adopted by many governmental and nongovernmental
agencies. Institutions adopting adaptive management have utilized different
definitions often focusing on a single strength of the process (i.e., experimentation,
reducing uncertainty, involving stakeholders) and thus operationalize the practice
uniquely. Some, like the U.S. Department of Interior, are highly focused on the
decision process and the incorporation of structured decision making while others,
such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, have embraced stakeholder involvement.
Each approach has merit but adaptive management has failed to live up to its
expectations [
58
]. The reasons for failure are many, and likely to be repeated, yet
the great potential of adaptive management remains; unfortunately, it remains largely
untapped. Translation of adaptive management approaches to “on-the-ground” natu-
ral resource managers is a critical step that has largely failed. Most natural resource
managers are still unable to define adaptive management, let alone incorporate it into
their normal management activities. The next decade will be critical: Will adaptive
management remain in the domain of ivory towers, or will it become a tool for the
trenches? Taking adaptive management to the practitioners will require the commu-
nication of adaptive management techniques in a clear, simple, and most importantly
applicable manner. Currently, adaptive management fails because of an adherence to
mathematical modeling above all else, its application to situations that are not
conducive to replication or the measurement of success (e.g., large rivers such as
the Missouri or the Colorado), and because adaptive management has not been
adequately incorporated into natural resources management via appropriate legal
