Adaptive Management and Robust Strategies

Adaptive management can be understood as 'learning by doing'. It is an approach to resource management that uses management decisions as a tool to learn about ecosystem functioning. Adaptive management differs from traditional approaches that use best available knowledge to make risk adverse decisions. Adaptive management aims to identify and embrace uncertainty and to use management actions as a process to learn more about the system.

Adaptive management is useful in the context of climate change, where the world is changing and unpredictable. An adaptive approach is resilient and can cope with change. It is a useful approach to decisions made with imperfect knowledge and high degrees of uncertainty. The aim is to reduce uncertainty over time through a structured iterative approach that involves monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment of actions based on what has been learned. Adaptive management works best within a context of institutional flexibility.

Adaptive management was developed by ecologists C.S. Holling and Carl J. Walters at the University of British Columbia in the 1970s. It was initially used for fishery management and has been widely embraced in natural resource management.

For additional information, please see materials under "Adaptive Management" in the Recommended Links and Publications sections.