Deconstructing adaptive management: Criteria for applications to environmental management
Loading...
Files
Date
2006
Authors
Gregory, R
Ohlson, D.
Arvai, J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ecological Society of America
Abstract
The concept of adaptive management has, for many ecologists, become a
foundation of effective environmental management for initiatives characterized by high levels
of ecological uncertainty. Yet problems associated with its application are legendary, and
many of the initiatives promoted as examples of adaptive management appear to lack essential
characteristics of the approach. In this paper we propose explicit criteria for helping managers
and decision makers to determine the appropriateness of either passive or active adaptivemanagement
strategies as a response to ecological uncertainty in environmental management.
Four categories of criteria—dealing with spatial and temporal scale, dimensions of
uncertainty, the evaluation of costs and benefits, and institutional and stakeholder support—
are defined and applied using hypothetical yet realistic case-study scenarios that illustrate a
range of environmental management problems. We conclude that many of the issues facing adaptive management may have less to do with the approach itself than with the indiscriminate choice of contexts within which it is now applied.
Description
15 pages
Keywords
Adaptive-management criteria, Decision analysis, Decision making, Environment management, Values
Citation
Gregory, R., Ohlson, D., & Arvai, J. (2006). Deconstructing adaptive management: Criteria for applications to environmental management. Ecological Applications, 16, 2411-2425.