Environment General Courses (ENVIRON)

graduate level, taught in Durham

298.27  Adaptive Management. 
Environmental management in the context of uncertainty.  Lectures, case studies and discussions will explore the nature of uncertainty, its relationship to risk, passive and active adaptive strategies, and the economic and social challenges for implementing adaptive management.  Prerequisite:  ENV 320 or ENV 298.xx, Scientific Basis of Ecosystem Management.  1 credit. Instructor: Christensen.  Limit:  56.

This course will be organized around five modules, each corresponding roughly to a week.

1. Uncertainty in Ecosystems:  An exploration of the nature and characterization of uncertainty in ecosystems.

• Gunderson, L. H. and C.S. Holling. 2002. Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems.  Island Press, Washington, DC.
• Holling, C.S. 1978.  Adaptive environmental assessment and management
• Walters, C.J.  Adaptive management of renewable resources.  Macmillan, New York.

2. Adaptive Management Systems:  Passive versus Active Adaptive Management. Protocols for monitoring, data management and feedback to management.

• Ludwig, D., R. Hilborn and C. Walters.  1993.  Uncertainty, resource exploitation, and conservation:  Lessons form history.  Science 260: 17+36
• Walters, C, L. Gunderson and C.S. Holling.  Experimental policies for water management in the Everglades.  Ecological Applications 2: 189-202.
• Cooperrider, A.Y.  1996.  Science as a model for ecosystem management—panacea or problem?  Ecological Applications 6:736-737

3. Adaptive Management and Conflict Management:  Implementation of adaptive management in the context of complex communities and multiple stakeholders.

• Lee, K. N. 1999. Appraising adaptive management. Conservation Ecology 3(2): 3. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol3/iss2/art3
• Shindler, B., and K. Aldred Cheek. 1999. Integrating citizens in adaptive management: a propositional analysis. Conservation Ecology 3(1): 9. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol3/iss1/art9

4. Developing Learning Organizations:  “The great obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the oceans was not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.” (The Discoverers, Daniel Borstin 1983).

• Readings TBA

5. Adaptive Management Case Studies:  An examination of what has worked, what has not, where and why.

• Case studies to include
• The Pacific Northwest Forest Plan (FEMAT)
• The Great Lakes Management Plan
• The Everglades
• Several International Examples

Course evaluation will be based on discussion participation and a term paper (Adaptive Management Plan for a specific project).