Adaptive Comanagement: a Systematic Review and Analysis

By R. Plummer, B. Crona, D. Armitage, P. Olsson, Maria Tengö, Olga Yudina. 2012

257 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper outlines the results of a systematic review of the literature on adaptive comanagement (ACM). Adaptive comanagement is an emergent governance approach for complex social-ecological systems that links the learning function of adaptive management (experimental and experiential) and the linking (vertically and horizontally) function of comanagement. Given the rapid growth of adaptive comanagement scholarship, there is value in a systematic analysis of how the concept is being conceptualized to elucidate agreement and discrepancies and to examine the challenges this presents for cross-case comparisons and the possibility of arriving at more generalizable insights. A synthesis-based methodology has been developed involving a comprehensive search and screening of academic databases and the internet. A detailed analysis of 108 documents was undertaken to characterize the state of the ACM literature, unpack the construct of ACM, and examine relationships among aspects of ACM based on accumulated experiences to date. The systematic review and analysis reveals imprecision, inconsistency, and confusion with the concept. Robust evidentiary insights into how the variables or components of ACM interrelate as well as relate to goals and outcomes are, therefore, presently not possible. These findings lead to the discussion of a series of challenges for ACM scholarship. Opportunities remain for ACM scholars to pursue theoretical development in rigorous ways that facilitate empirically based cross-site comparisons.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Sociology and Political Science, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9a874faf46455f4e563ba901fad7230a4001d62a

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In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Combating Land Degradation and Desertification: The Land-Use Planning Quandary (2019, background): “It echoes the adaptive co-management approach [125] and combines a variety of policy instruments to support the development and implementation of situated land use solutions.”
African community-based conservation: a systematic review of social and ecological outcomes (2018, background): “Ideally, management involves both bonding and bridging ties for shared learning-by-doing between the various actors (Plummer et al. 2012, 2013).”
Is Adaptive Co-management Delivering? Examining Relationships Between Collaboration, Learning and Outcomes in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (2017, methodology): “Bringing together collaboration and learning is indeed the hallmark of ACM (Folke et al., 2005; Armitage et al., 2007; Plummer et al., 2012; Plummer et al., 2014; Fabricius and Currie, 2015).”
Placing Transdisciplinarity in Context: A Review of Approaches to Connect Scholars, Society and Action (2019, background): “Adaptive co-management [118,119] and adaptive collaborative management [120] share many features and benefits with CAM, but have a greater emphasis on power sharing and knowledge integration through co-management.”