The Assessment of Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 56

or leadership with the same norm, but both could be seen as requirements for the
necessary political will requisite to foster proactive responses to climate change and
develop relations across different networks and levels of decision making. Folke
et al. ( 2005 ) also suggest that vision, trust and innovative leadership can provide key
functions for adaptive governance, e.g. 'building trust, making sense, managing
conflict, linking actors, initiating partnerships, compiling and generating knowl-
edge, mobilizing broad support for change'. Other studies have reinforced the will-
ingness to adjust to change from an individual (as well as societal) and this
perspective is also seen as a key determinant in social ability to adapt to new pres-
sures (Tompkins and Adger 2005 ) .
The importance of these elements of leadership in building collaboration and
resolving conflicts is underlined by their role as key components in bridging interests
and stakeholders and to a certain extent driving realisation of other principles of
adaptive governance. Leadership can be seen as an abstract concept, which can be
highly subjective to personal opinion. Additionally, strong leadership may not always
have a positive correlation with principles of adaptive governance, but it may be
inferred that meeting the other principles of adaptive governance may not be as easily
reached without the presence of leadership. Linkages may also exist with account-
ability, resources, networks, transparency and participation. Engle and Lemos ( 2010 )
also discuss the indicator 'commitment', which refers to the belief held by the differ-
ent stakeholders that the institutional and governance structures in place are adequate
for management of the resource as effectively and efficiently as possible.

4.3.2 Experience

Engle and Lemos ( 2010 ) note that more experience would correlate with a greater abil-
ity to deal with everyday events, as well as extremes, in an effective and efficient way.
While experience can broadly be deemed as relevant, just as with the concept of leader-
ship, precise measurement of this principle is very abstract. Yet, though an actor may
have many years of experience, preconditioned ideals or values may subject his/her
decisions to preconceived notions, which may or may not still be relevant for changing
conditions. UNECE ( 2009 ) highlight the importance not just of career experience, but
also fostering experience through training and simulation exercises on a regular basis.

4.3.3 Resources

Olsson et al. ( 2006 ) propose 'funds for responding to environmental change and for
remedial action; capacity for monitoring and responding to environmental feedback'
as indicators which both relate to the importance of human and financial resources
for ensuring effective capacity for monitoring systems, enforcing laws and respond-
ing to extremes or feedbacks. The importance of information and knowledge sharing,
not just in itself, but across different levels of stakeholder and decision makers is