In an article (pdf) forthcoming in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Dennis Murphy and I explore the potential for adaptive management through structured decision-making to improve efforts to conserve imperiled species. We note the many impediments to effective management, which include frequent default to best professional judgment. We then explore the potential for adaptive management to overcome these impediments if it is implemented as a step-wise, structured approach incorporating scientific information into decision-making. We go on to identify five essential points of engagement where science guides adaptive management: developing conceptual models, confronting management prescriptions with available data, building quantitative models, designing monitoring schemes, and interpreting returns from monitoring.
