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De-Mystifying Adaptive Management Training
Course and Simulation Model
BC Ministry of Forests
ESSA Technologies now offers training workshops
in Adaptive Management. If you and your organisation are interested
or involved in natural resource management, then you may find tremendous
benefit from learning more about Adaptive Management, and how it
can be applied.
ESSA developed and delivered a training package
to help resource managers in the BC Ministry of Forests initiate
and lead effective adaptive management projects. The training objectives
were to:
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build common understanding of
the principles and concepts of adaptive management; |
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provide clear, practical training
on the framework of adaptive management, including the steps
and processes in applying adaptive management; and |
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provide training on systems
and scenario analysis in the context of problem assessment —
how to design "management experiments" and monitoring
programs, and how to apply the results. |
To achieve these objectives, ESSA designed a
three day course that incorporated a variety of learning methods
(lectures, case studies, and "hands-on" exercises), and
we developed all of the training materials. These included an instructor
manual, a participant manual, lecture overheads, a computer simulation
model as a learning and gaming tool, and a user's guide for the
model. We delivered a pilot course in 1999 followed by a second
course in 2000. In 2001, the course was translated into Spanish
and we delivered it in Mexico to graduate students and professors
working in the field of watershed management. The course received
very positive evaluations, and in June 2002 it was delivered again,
this time in Ibarra, Ecuador.
Additionally, we have recently developed the
script for a self-guided tutorial that will help people learn how
to use the adaptive management simulation model on their own. The
tutorial is in the final development stages, and will be available
soon from the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.
We would like to acknowledge the BC Ministry
of Forests, who contracted us to develop the original Adaptive Management
training program, and Forest Renewal BC for providing the funding
for the development of that program.
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