Adaptive management of the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon world heritage areas.
Conventional perceptions of the interactions between people and their environment are rapidly transforming. Old paradigms that view humans as separate from nature, natural resources as inexhaustible or endlessly substitutable, and the world as stable, predictable, and in balance are no longer tenable. New conceptual frameworks are rapidly emerging based on an adaptive approach that focuses on learning and flexible management in a dynamic social-ecological landscape. Using two iconic World Heritage Areas as case studies (the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon) we outline how an improved integration of the scientific and social aspects of natural resource management can guide the evolution of multiscale systems of governance that confront and cope with uncertainty, risk, and change in an increasingly human-dominated world.
Hughes
Terence P
TP
Australian Research Council, Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Terry.Hughes@jcu.edu.au
Gunderson
Lance H
LH
Folke
Carl
C
Baird
Andrew H
AH
Bellwood
David
D
Berkes
Fikret
F
Crona
Beatrice
B
Helfgott
Ariella
A
Leslie
Heather
H
Norberg
Jon
J
Nyström
Magnus
M
Olsson
Per
P
Osterblom
Henrik
H
Scheffer
Marten
M
Schuttenberg
Heidi
H
Steneck
Robert S
RS
Tengö
Maria
M
Troell
Max
M
Walker
Brian
B
Wilson
James
J
Worm
Boris
B
D001130:Arizona; D001315:Australia; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans