Adaptive Environmental Management: A Practitioner’s Guide

Abstract

AS Stankey and Allan explain in their concise but informative introduction, “Adaptive management is characterized by both a compelling and intuitive simplicity (we learn by doing) as well as a growing sophisticated and elegant theoretical discourse.” It offers the promise of using policy implementation to improve understanding of natural systems and thereby to direct future changes to policy and practice. The challenge for managers is to identify the operational practicalities that lie between the attractive concept and the theory. The aim of this book is to examine that challenge through case studies of the real-world application of adaptive management in a range of settings, including examples relevant to managers, policy makers and environmental scientists. The approach is not prescriptive, but rather to reflect on experience as a guide to future practice.