A critical assessment of collaborative adaptive management in practice

Abstract

Summary1. Collaborative adaptive management (CAM) is regularly touted as the best way to handle natural resource management in the face of uncertainty, change and conflict. Successful applications of CAM have, however, been elusive in practice. 2. This article examines the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (AMP) in the United States, and other CAM efforts, to illustrate why and how procedural shortcomings may lead to natural resource management failures and reflect on how they may be overcome. 3. Synthesis and applications. To increase the chance of success, CAM efforts should set clear overarching goals and concrete and measurable objectives, employ tools and incentives to facilitate participation and foster collaboration, implement well-defined joint fact-finding protocols to promote shared learning and manage scientific uncertainty, and commit to monitoring and adapting their management regimes over time. Even in complex and contentious resource management contexts, future CAM efforts that integrate these design elements are likely to lead to more effective natural resource management.

A Framework for Resilience-based Governance of Social-Ecological Systems

“…The identification or "setting" of thresholds is very difficult, and fraught with uncertainty, but is an essential component in resilience science ). Thus, thresholds should be set that can shift with improved information because ignoring this critical aspect to managing for resilience almost guarantees failure in environmental governance (Susskind et al 2012).…”

A Word to the Wise: Advice for Scientists Engaged in Collaborative Adaptive Management

“…Serious challenges confront resource management projects that include collaboration and adaptive management (Allen and Gunderson 2011;Susskind et al 2012). We were able to anticipate some problems (e.g., mismatch between scale of research products); others caught us by surprise (e.g., turnover in agency leadership).…”

“…Adaptive management aims to fill this knowledge deficit by treating management actions as an experiment and then using the empirical results to improve future decisions (Walters and Holling 1990;Susskind et al 2012). The site-and time-contingent learning provided by adaptive management is essential if natural resource managers are to make informed decisions under changing environmental conditions.…”

“…For example, the 2009 Forest Landscape Restoration Act is one of several recent federal statues to specifically call for collaboration in the management of National Forest System lands (Cheng and Sturtevant 2012;Schultz et al 2012;Butler et al 2 2015). Collaboration can encompass many related processes (Conley and Moote 2003;Reed 2008;Susskind et al 2012): engaging stakeholders in natural resources management; incorporating local knowledge; increasing mutual learning; reducing conflict; building relationships; and maximizing the diversity of perceptions. Collectively the hope is that these collaborative efforts will lead to more effective management with less strife.…”

“…Efforts that incorporate elements of both adaptive management and collaboration are often referred to as collaborative adaptive management or CAM (Susskind et al 2012;Beratan 2014). CAM incorporates two recommendations for improved governance of natural resources: the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in the decision-making process and the treatment of management actions as experiments (Beratan 2014;Butler et al 2015).…”