Adaptable Management, Review and Audit

Planning should be a continuous, iterative and developmental process. Adaptive management is an ecosystem approach to experimental management that enables changes to be linked to cause and to management operations. This chapter introduces adaptable management: a similar approach but with some significant differences. Adaptable management can be applied to any site, regardless of size. It is not experimentation but a simpler system based on monitoring and then, if necessary, modifying management. The cyclical, adaptable management process allows site management to: respond to natural dynamic processes; accommodate the legitimate interests of others; adapt to the ever-changing political and socioeconomic climate; and, in the long term, succeed, despite uncertain and variable resources. Adaptable management is learning to manage by planning to learn. Management reviews are an integral and essential component of the adaptable management process. Audit is not strictly a component of the management planning process but a complementary activity that sits alongside management planning. Audit is the procedure for assessing whether or not a site is being managed to the standard required by an organisation and to ensure that the status of the site features is accurately reported.

Keywords adaptable management, adaptive management, audit, monitor, objective, rationale, review