The relationship between adaptive management of social-ecological systems and law: a systematic review

Miguel F Frohlich; Christine L Jacobson; Pedro Fidelman; Timothy F Smith

doi:10.5751/ES-10060-230223

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The relationship between adaptive management of social-ecological systems and law: a systematic review

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

The relationship between adaptive management of social-ecological systems and law: a systematic review

Miguel F Frohlich, Christine L Jacobson, Pedro Fidelman and Timothy F Smith

Ecology and Society, Vol.23(2), 23

2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10060-230223

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Abstract

adaptive governance

adaptive management

environmental management

law

legal institutions

legislation

systematic review

Adaptive management has been considered a valuable approach for managing social-ecological systems involving high levels of complexity and uncertainty. However, many obstacles still hamper its implementation. Law is often seen as a barrier for moving adaptive management beyond theory, although there has been no synthesis on the challenges of legal constraints or how to overcome them. We contribute to filling this knowledge gap by providing a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on the relationship between adaptive management and law in relation to social-ecological systems. We analyze how the scholarship defines the concept of adaptive management, identifies the legal barriers to adaptive management, and the legal strategies suggested for enabling this approach. Research efforts in this domain are still highly geographically concentrated in the United States of America, unveiling gaps concerning the analysis of other legal jurisdictions. Overall, our results show that more flexible legal frameworks can allow for adaptive management without undermining the role of law in providing stability to social interactions. Achieving this balance will likely require the reform of existing laws, regulations, and other legal instruments. Legal reforms can facilitate the emergence of adaptive governance, with the potential to support not only adaptive management implementation but also to make law itself more adaptive.

Details

Title: The relationship between adaptive management of social-ecological systems and law: a systematic review
Authors: Miguel F Frohlich (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Christine L Jacobson (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Pedro Fidelman (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Timothy F Smith (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Publication details: Ecology and Society, Vol.23(2), 23; 19
Publisher: Resilience Alliance Publications
Date published: 2018
DOI: 10.5751/ES-10060-230223
ISSN: 1708-3087
Copyright note: Copyright © 2018 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance. This article is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt the work for noncommercial purposes provided the original author and source are credited, you indicate whether any changes were made, and you include a link to the license.
Organisation Unit: Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451389802621
Output Type: Journal article