Title
The Long and Windy Road to Adaptive Management of the Lower Rio Negro Mosaic Brazilian Amazon.
Author(s)
Estupio, Guillermo; Didier, Karl; Catapan, Marisete; Durigan, Carlos
Published
2017
Abstract
Since 2014, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Brazil Program has been encouraging adoption of Adaptive Management (AM) principles in the Lower Rio Negro Mosaic of protected areas, following standard project management phases (e.g., Conceptualize the Project, Plan Actions and Monitoring, Implement, Evaluate and Adapt, and Share). Our early attempts to encourage AM focused on training partners (the “education will change behavior” theory of change). More recently, we have incentivized adoption by providing funding for concrete, multi-partner projects, but tying funding to production of planning products, such as theories of change and monitoring plans (the “monetary incentive” theory of change). Neither of these strategies has been successful at establishing wide-spread adoption of AM, although some progress has been made. Barriers to adoption include planning fatigue, especially through exposure to many project management tools and inconsistent government requirements; associated frustration that implementation does not happen; staff turnover and poor institutional consistency; resistance to AM processes that are perceived to be “biodiversity” focused; lack of “longterm funding” allowing completion of a project cycle; and lack of effective mechanisms to communicate monitoring data to decision-makers so that they can adapt projects. Our current strategy de-emphasizes the planning phase and focuses on implementing effectiveness monitoring, encouraging clear communication of monitoring results to decision-makers, and facilitating explicit “evaluation and adaptation” events. We strongly believe that adoption of AM will continue to be piece-meal if donor organization’s do not (a) require and encourage projects to demonstrate good AM (especially evaluation/adaptation phases) and to use critical AM tools (e.g., results chains) in project proposals and reports and (b) provide sufficiently longterm funding to allow projects to complete the project cycle at least once.
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PUB27035