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Adaptive Management of Social-Ecological Systems pp 181–199Cite as

Adaptive Management Today: A Practitioners’ Perspective

Abstract

The practice of adaptive management reflects an evolution that has played out across the globe in a wide variety of resource management contexts. The current practice of adaptive management reflects a dynamic mix of valiant efforts, which as discussed in other chapters in this book includes both notable successes and dismal failures. In our three decades of experience with adaptive management we have learned significant lessons pointing the way toward improved and expanded practice. Notwithstanding the lessons learned by practitioners about how to do adaptive management well, we see a future with intensified social and institutional challenges inhibiting effective adaptive management, continued misunderstanding of what true adaptive management really is, and ever increasing environmental management challenges that cry out for rigorous adaptive management.

Keywords

  • Adaptive management
  • Uncertainty
  • Practitioner
  • Environmental management
  • Future

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESSA Technologies Ltd., 2695 Granville Street, Suite 600, V6H 3H4, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Carol L. Murray, David R. Marmorek & Lorne A. Greig

Authors
  1. Carol L. Murray
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  2. David R. Marmorek
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  3. Lorne A. Greig
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Correspondence to Carol L. Murray .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nebraska Cooperative Fish & Wildlife UResearch Unit-USGS, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Craig R. Allen

  2. Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Ahjond S. Garmestani

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Murray, C., Marmorek, D., Greig, L. (2015). Adaptive Management Today: A Practitioners’ Perspective. In: Allen, C., Garmestani, A. (eds) Adaptive Management of Social-Ecological Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9682-8_10

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