Monitoring for Adaptive Management in Conservation Biology

Adaptive management is about systematically implementing management in order to achieve a desired outcome. In recent years, growing interest and effort has gone into measuring the conservation success of such programs. This module's synthesis focuses on biological monitoring (the state of the target condition), and provides an overview on how to form management goals and convert these into monitoring goals, sampling and analysis, as well as how to effectively report results to stakeholders. The accompanying simulation exercise is a model management program designed to underscore the need for flexibility in management initiatives by focusing on developing important skills such as adaptability, experimentation, and communication. Students develop management objectives for a single harvested system and track changes in abundance of its species over time. Students are then given the opportunity to experiment with harvest strategies over time to best meet their objectives, given shifting management conditions.