Adaptive Co-Management

Adaptive Co-Management makes a strong contribution to scholarship and to practical applications. Grounded in real world examples, it will be very useful to those charged with implementing programs in wildlife, fisheries, climate change, and other management areas. -- Arthur J. Hanson, Distinguished Fellow and Senior Scientist, International Institute for Sustainable Development

This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of the core concepts, strategies, and tools in adaptive co-management, where adaptive processes, feedback learning, and flexible partnerships that are reshaping environmental governance.

In Canada and around the world, governments are shifting away from regulatory models for governing natural and cultural resources. New concerns with adaptive processes, feedback learning, and flexible partnerships are reshaping environmental governance. Meanwhile, ideas about collaboration and learning are converging around the idea of adaptive co-management.

This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of the core concepts, strategies, and tools in this emerging field, informed by a diverse group of researchers and practitioners with over two decades of experience. It also offers a diverse set of case studies that reveal the challenges and implications of adaptive co-management thinking and synthesizes lessons for natural and cultural resource governance in a wide range of contexts.

Adaptive Co-Management is not only a timely book but also a useful concept for resource governance in a world marked by rapid socio-ecological change. It will be of interest to researchers, environmental practitioners, policy-makers, and students in fields across the political and environmental spectrum.