During the winter semester at McGill I teach Adaptive Environmental Management (GEOG 380) to upper level undergraduates from a mixed science/arts background. This is the second year that I have taught this course at McGill. In the course I try to bridge the more technical approaches to adaptive environmental assessment and management described by Buzz Holling et al (1978) and Carl Walters (1986) with more recent efforts by Fikret Berkes and Carl Folke that better integrate social dimensions, such as trust building, bridging knowledge systems, and instititutional fit.

I define four pillar of adaptive management, based upon Berkes, Colding and Folke (2003): building resilience, bridging knowledge systems for learning, practice of experimental management, and navigating context.

Below are the papers and book chapters that I am planning to use in my course this semester.

Papers

• J. L. Anderson. 1998. Embracing uncertainty: The interface of Bayesian statistics and cognitive psychology. Conservation Ecology [online] 2(1): 2.
• F. Berkes,, J. Colding, and C. Folke. 2000. Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological Applications 10:1251-1262.
• Thomas Dietz, Elinor Ostrom, Paul C. Stern. 2003. The Struggle to Govern the Commons. Science. Vol. 302. no. 5652, pp. 1907 – 1912.
• I. Fazey, J. A. Fazey, and D. M. A. Fazey. 2005. Learning more effectively from experience. Ecology and Society 10(2):4
• Carl Folke et al. 2004. Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Biodiversity in Ecosystem Management. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, Vol. 35: 557-581.
• C. Folke, T. Hahn, P. Olsson, and J. Norberg. 2005. Adaptive governance of social-ecological systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 30:441-473.
• LR Gerber, M Beger, MA McCarthy and HP Possingham. (2005) A theory for optimal monitoring of marine reserves. Ecology Letters 8:8, 829-837
• CS Holling. 2001. Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological and social systems. Ecosystems 4: 390–405.
• CS Holling, and G. K. Meffe. 1996. Command and Control and the Pathology of Natural Resource Management. Conservation Biology 10(2): 328-37.
• P. Olsson, C. Folke, and T. Hahn. 2004. Social-ecological transformation for ecosystem management: the development of adaptive co-management of a wetland landscape in southern Sweden. Ecology and Society 9(4): 2.
• G. Peterson, S. Carpenter, and W.A. Brock. 2003. Model uncertainity and the management of multi-state ecosystems: a rational route to collapse. Ecology. 84(6) 1403-1411.
• G. Peterson, G.S. Cumming, and S.R. Carpenter. 2003. Scenario Planning: a Tool for Conservation in an Uncertain World. Conservation Biology 17(2):358-366.
• RA Pielke Jr, RT Conant. 2003. Best practices in prediction for decision-making: Lessons from the atmospheric and earth sciences. Ecology 84(6) 1351–1358.
• Pinkerton, E. 1999. Factors in overcoming barriers to implementing co-management in British Columbia salmon fisheries. Conservation Ecology 3(2): 2.
• K Rogers. 1998. Managing science/management partnerships: a challenge of adaptive management. Conservation Ecology [online] 2(2): R1.
• C. Walters, 1997. Challenges in adaptive management of riparian and coastal ecosystems. Conservation Ecology [online] 1:1.

Book Sections

• Hilborn, R., and M. Mangel. 1997. The ecological detective: confronting models with data. Chapter 1. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
• Hilborn, R., and M. Mangel. 1997. The ecological detective: confronting models with data. Chapter 2. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
• Holling, C.S. 1986. The resilience of terrestrial ecosystems: local surprise and global change. – In: Clark, W. C. and Munn, R. E. (eds.), Sustainable development of the biosphere. Cambridge University Press, pp. 292-317.
• Lee, K. N. 1993. Compass: adaptive management. Pages 51-86 in Compass and gyroscope: integrating science and politics for the environment. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
• Walters, C. J. 1986. Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources. McGraw Hill, New York. (Chapter 2)
• Walters, C. J. 1986. Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources. McGraw Hill, New York. (Chapter 3)
• Westley, F. 2002. The devil in the dynamics: adaptive management on the front lines in Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems edited by L.H. Gunderson and C.S. Holling. Island Press, Washington, DC.