64
Adaptive Ecosystem Assessment and Management: The Path of Last Resort?
tion. They demonstrate multiple stable states
and discontinuous behavior in both time and
space. Simply relieving an ecological "stressor"
won't solve the management problem.
3. There is no easy way out. Problems are increasingly caused by slow changes reflecting
decadal accumulations of human influences on
air and water and decadal or centuries-old transformations of landscapes. These slow changes
cause sudden shifts in environmental variables
that quickly and directly affect the health of people, productivity of renewable resources, and vitality of societies.
4. There can be no neat packaging of problems in
time and space. The spatial extent of connections is intensifying so that the problems are
now fundamentally cross-scale in nature in
space as well as in time. More frequently, regional and national environmental problems
now have their source at both local and global
scales. Examples include the greenhouse gas accumulations, ozone depletion, and deterioration
of biodiversity.
5. Time is not reversible. Both the ecological and
social components of these problems have an
evolutionary character. The problems are therefore not amenable to solutions based on knowledge of small parts of the whole, nor on the
assumptions of constancy or stability of fundamental relationships, whether ecological, economic, or social. Policies must be focused On
active adaptive designs and management actions
that yield understanding as much as they do
product.
4.7 The Adaptive Path:
No Easy Answers
Instead of looking for saviors, we should be calling for
leadership that will challenge us to face problems for
which there are no simple painless solutions-problems
that require us to learn new ways. (Heifetz, 1994)
Putting new ideas to work requires uprooting existing ways of thinking and acting. Implementing
AEAM calls for a deep commitment to abiding
change, not just in our skills and capabilities, but
in our attitudes and beliefs, awareness, and sensibilities (Senge, 1990). Such profound shifts in the
way we think and behave are extremely difficult.
For practical and rational reasons, people resist
"unlearning yesterday." Change is painful, threatening, inconvenient, and uncomfortable. It exposes
incompetence and requires effort for new learning.
The fundamental challenge for AEAM, or ecological policy design as it has sometimes been referred
to, is fostering patterns of collective action based
on our present limited understanding that remain
open to learning how to discover, accept, and reflect on the transient solutions that will inevitably
be found deficient. Learning is both painful and
self-renewing-terrifying and reassuring. Implanting AEAM in our organizations will require overcoming deep structural barriers, including (1) institutions so attached to conventional methods as
to drive out creativity, (2) threats to personal security or professional competence that break down
commitment to change, (3) self-sealing beliefs that
reify existing strategies, (4) limits to simplification,
and (5) bureaucratic inertia (Hurst, 1995).
4.8 Principles for
Adaptive Change
Adaptive ecosystem assessment and management
aspires to create dialogue between humans and nature in which humans imagine ways to engage nature for human benefit by testing propositions (policy as hypothesis, management as experiment) on
how to learn to live with and profit from (adapt to)
the variability inherent in ecological, economic,
and institutional systems and their interactions.
Therefore, AEAM is a fundamentally new philosophy of management and not just a compilation of
sundry methods (Baskerville, 1977).
Without an articulation of guiding principles and
values, AEAM cannot be fully embraced and has
no transformational power. What is offered next is
a summary of evolving inferences about the way
that the dialogue between people and nature should
be conducted in the future. As with any propositions, they cannot be validated, only discredited in
particular contexts. Some are roughhewn, while
others have been polished through repeated application. Like any scientific model, they will be accepted not by faith, but through repeated testing.
• Surprise is the rule, so plan to learn. This is
the soul of the adaptive philosophy; the realization
that solutions are transient and will inevitably be
found deficient makes learning by intent imperative. Building learning into organizational and institutional function is a challenge despite growing
recognition in the management literature of its
value. In place of a bottom line, public bureaucracies use rules and regulations, that is, adherence to
procedure, as a measure of accountability and performance. Adaptive management creates a new
Adaptive Ecosystem Assessment and Management: The Path of Last Resort?
tion. They demonstrate multiple stable states
and discontinuous behavior in both time and
space. Simply relieving an ecological "stressor"
won't solve the management problem.
3. There is no easy way out. Problems are increasingly caused by slow changes reflecting
decadal accumulations of human influences on
air and water and decadal or centuries-old transformations of landscapes. These slow changes
cause sudden shifts in environmental variables
that quickly and directly affect the health of people, productivity of renewable resources, and vitality of societies.
4. There can be no neat packaging of problems in
time and space. The spatial extent of connections is intensifying so that the problems are
now fundamentally cross-scale in nature in
space as well as in time. More frequently, regional and national environmental problems
now have their source at both local and global
scales. Examples include the greenhouse gas accumulations, ozone depletion, and deterioration
of biodiversity.
5. Time is not reversible. Both the ecological and
social components of these problems have an
evolutionary character. The problems are therefore not amenable to solutions based on knowledge of small parts of the whole, nor on the
assumptions of constancy or stability of fundamental relationships, whether ecological, economic, or social. Policies must be focused On
active adaptive designs and management actions
that yield understanding as much as they do
product.
4.7 The Adaptive Path:
No Easy Answers
Instead of looking for saviors, we should be calling for
leadership that will challenge us to face problems for
which there are no simple painless solutions-problems
that require us to learn new ways. (Heifetz, 1994)
Putting new ideas to work requires uprooting existing ways of thinking and acting. Implementing
AEAM calls for a deep commitment to abiding
change, not just in our skills and capabilities, but
in our attitudes and beliefs, awareness, and sensibilities (Senge, 1990). Such profound shifts in the
way we think and behave are extremely difficult.
For practical and rational reasons, people resist
"unlearning yesterday." Change is painful, threatening, inconvenient, and uncomfortable. It exposes
incompetence and requires effort for new learning.
The fundamental challenge for AEAM, or ecological policy design as it has sometimes been referred
to, is fostering patterns of collective action based
on our present limited understanding that remain
open to learning how to discover, accept, and reflect on the transient solutions that will inevitably
be found deficient. Learning is both painful and
self-renewing-terrifying and reassuring. Implanting AEAM in our organizations will require overcoming deep structural barriers, including (1) institutions so attached to conventional methods as
to drive out creativity, (2) threats to personal security or professional competence that break down
commitment to change, (3) self-sealing beliefs that
reify existing strategies, (4) limits to simplification,
and (5) bureaucratic inertia (Hurst, 1995).
4.8 Principles for
Adaptive Change
Adaptive ecosystem assessment and management
aspires to create dialogue between humans and nature in which humans imagine ways to engage nature for human benefit by testing propositions (policy as hypothesis, management as experiment) on
how to learn to live with and profit from (adapt to)
the variability inherent in ecological, economic,
and institutional systems and their interactions.
Therefore, AEAM is a fundamentally new philosophy of management and not just a compilation of
sundry methods (Baskerville, 1977).
Without an articulation of guiding principles and
values, AEAM cannot be fully embraced and has
no transformational power. What is offered next is
a summary of evolving inferences about the way
that the dialogue between people and nature should
be conducted in the future. As with any propositions, they cannot be validated, only discredited in
particular contexts. Some are roughhewn, while
others have been polished through repeated application. Like any scientific model, they will be accepted not by faith, but through repeated testing.
• Surprise is the rule, so plan to learn. This is
the soul of the adaptive philosophy; the realization
that solutions are transient and will inevitably be
found deficient makes learning by intent imperative. Building learning into organizational and institutional function is a challenge despite growing
recognition in the management literature of its
value. In place of a bottom line, public bureaucracies use rules and regulations, that is, adherence to
procedure, as a measure of accountability and performance. Adaptive management creates a new