Adaptive management has become a normative approach to environmental management since its initial development as an experimental approach to address uncertainty (Holling, 1978 and Walters and Hilborn, 1978). The approach SB431542 now widely used in all environmental sectors, including forestry, fisheries, conservation and coastal management (McFadden et al., 2011). Debates about the nature of adaptive management and tendencies to either an experimental or collaborative approach have been prevalent in the literature since the 1990s (Allen et?al., 2011 and Jacobson et?al., 2009). Common to all descriptions is a structured process of learning from management in the face of uncertainty, which can occur from policy to project scales (Allan and Stankey, 2009). Structured learning involves monitoring and evaluation of the management process and using that information to inform management decision-making, by reflecting on and adapting actions, or by reflecting on and adapting both actions and assumptions about the most appropriate actions (Jacobson et al., 2009). The integration of monitoring and assessment information is a core component of a structured learning process (Jacobson et?al., 2011, Jacobson et?al., 2009 and Smith et?al., 2009). However, it is often this component that challenges managers (Douvere and Ehler, 2011, Jacobson et?al., 2011 and Smith et?al., 2009).
↧