Adaptive management of natural resources

The concept of adaptive management has been embraced by natural resource managers worldwide, and in Australia the promise to manage adaptively underpins most government water related programs and projects. Adaptive management is learning from doing; learning comes through the implementation of policies and strategies, so adaptive management complements research-based learning. Passive adaptive management learns from the implementation of an historically informed ‘best ’ practice, followed by review of that implementation. Active adaptive management involves a range of practices designed to achieve strategic goals (treatments) to test the hypothesis that ‘best ’ practice is just that. Adaptive Management is not sycophantic flexibility, nor is it simply muddling through. In particular, adaptive management is not business as usual. For adaptive management to achieve its promise it must be recognised as a radical departure from established ways of managing natural resources; it requires new ways of thinking about management, new organisational structures and new implementation processes and tools. Planners and managers require educational, administrative, and political support as they seek to understand and implement adaptive management