Adaptive management for natural parks: Considerations for an experimental approach

The concept of adaptive management was developed in the mid-1970s as a means to account for uncertainty in the way ecosystems respond to human intervention (Holling 1978; Walters 1996). Adaptive management postulates that “if human understanding of nature is imperfect, then human interactions with nature [e.g., management actions] should be experimental” (Lee 1993). Kohm and Franklin (1997) state that “adaptive management is the only logical approach under the circumstances of uncertainty and the continued accumulation of knowledge.” Adaptive management improves understanding of ecosystem responses to human interventions, such as management actions, and promotes shared understanding of ecosystems by stakeholders, scientists, policymakers, and managers. The methods used to apply adaptive management to national parks are often siteand problem-specific (see examples below), which makes it difficult for park managers to use them in other park units. In this article, I propose a generic analytical framework for adaptively managing natural and cultural resources and visitors to national parks and other protected areas.