Program on the Environment

Adaptive management is an emerging conservation strategy that uses monitoring to identify problems and potential solutions. Learning projects are especially important in an era of climate change, where the only certainty of the future is uncertainty. However, the majority of grant sources fund short-term projects, especially restoration and acquisition, that have tangible returns. The long-term nature and uncertainty of adaptive learning projects make finding funding challenging. I found that most grants either don’t fund adaptive management projects or are acquisition/restoration dominated. Therefore, the goal of this study was to identify what additional components grant agencies should include in proposal requirements to provide more support for adaptive management. Using my Port Susan Bay vegetation monitoring internship with The Nature Conservancy as a case study of adaptive management in action, combined with research of the available literature for adaptive management and grant recovery, I identify the key adaptive management components. Suggestions for requirements include a responsibility requirement for monitoring post-restoration, a required climate change component explaining how the project will account for future conditions, benchmarks or thresholds for when adaptive action should occur, and a detailed schedule for monitoring and analysis. Learning projects can advance our scientific knowledge of ecosystem functioning and resilience to account for the uncertainty of climate change in the future. These requirements will encourage applicants to account for climate change in their plans while increasing the funding of adaptive management to improve the protection of our natural resources.