Appendix 3
4. Review and improve the implementation of federal and tribal regulations pertaining to fish and wildlife conservation 5. Compile and integrate results from inventory, monitoring, management, and restoration strategies into existing conservation plans mechanisms
A FRAMEWORK FOR ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT When biologists need to coordinate and organize complex scenarios for a goal-oriented strategy to conserve a variety of species and their environments, they consider applying adaptive management perspectives (Lancia et al. 1996). Adaptive management follows a process that builds upon itself iteratively so managers are constantly learning from experience or experimentation; where assessment and re-assessment helps adjust to any perturbations to the focal system (Lancia et al. 1996). These strategies were first helpful in situations where there was uncertainty in the environment or changes could occur (Riley et al. 2002). Because environments and human-interests change so quickly, the application of adaptive management has proven difficult and often only used as a theoretical perspective for fisheries and wildlife management (Lee 1999). The most complex scenarios include coupled human and natural systems where society changes (i.e. policy and culture) and so does the natural world. Therefore, few examples exist of a social-ecological perspective with real-world application for adaptive management. With a rich culture tied to their environment, a fully functional sovereign government, and a contiguous land base in one of the most biodiversity rich areas on the continent, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians possess the perfect situation to develop an adaptive management framework around social-ecological perspectives. Although our management actions function independently of external changes from humans (social changes such as harvest strategies, economic growth) and the natural world (floods, climate change, invasive species), we are adaptive to these changes in our management strategies. In our model, a change might occur independent of our management actions. When a change occurs in either of these external areas, we, as a management agency, must alter our methods to fit the change to meet a goal of conserving natural resources. We can use this model to track our progress, acting as a guidebook for assessment and re-assessment during periods when we must adjust our methods to external changes.
2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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