Adapative Management and Trial-and-Error Learning

Brett Stansfield

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I must congradulate Kai N. Lee (1999) on her paper “Appraising Adaptive Management.” It brings many issues to the forefront of current research. With respect to question 2 (“When an adaptive management design is not feasible, is there experience to guide trial and error learning?”), I must stress here that I believe that adaptive management includes trial-and-error learning.

The author states that adaptive management is learning while doing. Surely, such learning must include learning from mistakes. There have certainly been many development projects in New Zealand from which we have learned a lot. For example, hydroelectric power generation has hindered fish passage in waterways (Jowett 1987). Although the intital intent of hydroelectric power station development was to generate electricity, a mistake in the design has forced us to learn about hydrological requirements for fish passage. In this sense (learning from mistakes), adaptive management has been in practice for many years. I welcome any responses to this brief submission.

Published: June 6, 2003

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Jowett, I. G. 1987. Fish passage, control devices and spawning channels. Pages 138–155 in P. R. Henriques. Aquatic biology and hydroelectric power development in New Zealand. Oxford University Press, Aukland, New Zealand.

Lee, K. N. 1999. Appraising adaptive management. Conservation Ecology 3(2): 3. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol3/iss2/art3