page_title: Adaptive management
section_title: Application to environmental projects and programs
hierarchical_section_title: Adaptive management / Application to environmental projects and programs
caption_attribution_description: English: This image comes from the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. The Conservation Measures Partnership developed this set of adaptive management Open Standards to bring together common concepts, approaches, and terminology in conservation project design, management, and monitoring in order to help practitioners improve the practice of conservation. In particular, these standards are meant to provide the steps and general guidance necessary for the successful implementation of conservation projects.
context_page_description: Adaptive management, also known as adaptive resource management or adaptive environmental assessment and management, is a structured, iterative process of robust decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim to reducing uncertainty over time via system monitoring. In this way, decision making simultaneously meets one or more resource management objectives and, either passively or actively, accrues information needed to improve future management. Adaptive management is a tool which should be used not only to change a system, but also to learn about the system. Because adaptive management is based on a learning process, it improves long-run management outcomes. The challenge in using the adaptive management approach lies in finding the correct balance between gaining knowledge to improve management in the future and achieving the best short-term outcome based on current knowledge. This approach has more recently been employed in implementing international development programs.
context_section_description: Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation lays out five main steps to an adaptive management project cycle (see Figure 1).  The Open Standards represent a compilation and adaptation of best practices and guidelines across several fields and across several organizations within the conservation community.  Since the release of the initial Open Standards (updated in 2007 and 2013), thousands of project teams from conservation organizations (e.g., TNC, Rare, and WWF), local conservation groups, and donors alike have begun applying these Open Standards to their work.  In addition, several CMP members have developed training materials and courses to help apply the Standards.
  Some recent write-ups of adaptive management in conservation include:  wildlife protection (SWAP, 2008), forests ecosystem protection (CMER, 2010), coastal protection and restoration (LACPR, 2009), natural resource management (water, land and soil), species conservation especially, fish conservation from overfishing (FOS, 2007) and climate change (DFG, 2010). In addition, some other examples follow:
  In 2006–2007, FOS worked with The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to develop an evaluation system help NFWF gauge impact across the various coral reef habitat and species conservation projects;
  In 2007, FOS worked with the Ocean Conservancy (OC) to evaluate the effectiveness of this Scorecard in helping to end overfishing in domestic fisheries.
  Between 1999–2004, FOS worked for WWF's Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy (AREAS) Program to ensure that Asian elephants and rhinos thrive in secure habitats within their historical range and in harmony with people.
  The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is developing and implementing adaptation strategies to help protect, restore and manage fish and wildlife, with the understanding that some level of climate change will occur and that it will have profound effects on ecosystems in the United States.
  The Adaptive Management program was created by CMR to provide science-based recommendations and technical information to assist the Forest Practices Board. In April 2010, the Forest Practices Adaptive Management Annual Science Conference was held in Washington.
  In 2009, The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration (LACPR) Technical Report has been developed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) according to adaptive management process.
  Since 2009, the Kenya Wildlife Service has been managing its marine protected areas using adaptive management in an ongoing process of learning through the  Science for Active Management (SAM) Program.
caption: Figure 1: CMP Adaptive Management Cycle
exif: {}