Charting the New Territory of Adaptive Co-management: A Delphi Study

By R. Plummer, D. Armitage. 2007

136 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Complex systems understanding implies a world characterized by dynamic, nonlinear interactions, discontinuities, and surprises. Such conditions are not amenable to conventional resource management approaches that stress command-and-control, and therefore, novel governance approaches more suited to complexity and uncertainty are required. Adaptive co-management has emerged as an interdisciplinary response to this need, and blends the adaptive management and collaborative management narratives. However, concepts associated with adaptive co-management are relatively new and quickly expanding from multiple perspectives. The objective of this paper is to take stock of this relatively recent concept and synthesize current thinking in terms of: (1) the core components of adaptive co-management, (2) emerging research directions, (3) the barriers to implementation of adaptive co-management, and (4) criteria for success. To explore these four areas, a three-round, classical Delphi process was administered with an expert panel of 30 individuals. All members of the expert panel initially responded to open-ended questions, and the qualitative results were analyzed using QSR NVIVO. The subsequent two rounds of the Delphi required quantitative responses in which the expert panel was asked to indicate the level of importance using a seven point likert scale associated with specific items. Results of the Delphi survey reveal a high degree of consensus on several core areas within this emerging interdisciplinary governance approach. Results of this research should foster precision with respect to employment of the term, foster scholarly discourse, and indicate areas of practical importance to adaptive co-management.

Subfields: Management Science and Operations Research, Sociology and Political Science, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1fc6e1b55e0cae32d823c286b01fe96b38ec1ee0

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Management Science and Operations Research

1. Ö. Bodin
2. R. Plummer
3. B. Crona
4. P. Olsson
5. Olga Yudina
6. Maria Tengö
7. D. Armitage

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Ö. Bodin
2. R. Plummer
3. D. Armitage
4. P. Olsson
5. Lisen Schultz
6. J. Baird
7. Angela Dzyundzyak
8. B. Crona

In Strategy and Management

1. D. Armitage
2. R. Plummer
3. S. Brouwer
4. Ö. Bodin
5. Frank Biermann
6. B. Crona

Citations in the corpus

• Adaptive Comanagement: a Systematic Review and Analysis (2012, methodology): “At that time, it served to highlight the social context of adaptive management (sensu Lee 1993) but has since also come to represent an enrichment of comanagment scholarship in the directions of complexity science and resilience thinking (Plummer and Armitage 2007b).”
• Towards Adaptive Management: Examining the Strategies of Policy Entrepreneurs in Dutch Water Management (2011, background): “Instead, the management of social-ecological systems should be continuously updating its goals, measures, and policies (Olsson et al. 2004, Hahn et al. 2006, Plummer and Armitage 2007).”
• Qualitative and quantitative effects of reintroduced beavers on stream fish (2012, background): “…been at least partially achieved, with vertical aggradation (based on assessments of 13 beaver dams 1–6 years old), initially estimated to be rapid (up to 0.47 m year)1) and then to decline to lower rates (e.g. 0.075 m year)1), resulting in increased area of riparian habitat (Pollock et al. 2007).”
• Is Adaptive Co-management Delivering? Examining Relationships Between Collaboration, Learning and Outcomes in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (2017, methodology): “For example, evaluation was a general void in co-management (Plummer and Armitage, 2007a) and rare in collaborative planning (Chess, 2000; Bellamy et al., 2001; Frame et al., 2004).”