Navigating Ecological Transformation: Resist–Accept–Direct as a Path to a New Resource Management Paradigm

Abstract Natural resource managers worldwide face a growing challenge: Intensifying global change increasingly propels ecosystems toward irreversible ecological transformations. This nonstationarity challenges traditional conservation goals and human well-being. It also confounds a longstanding mana...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioscience 2022-01, Vol.72 (1), p.16-29
Main Authors: Schuurman, Gregor W, Cole, David N, Cravens, Amanda E, Covington, Scott, Crausbay, Shelley D, Hoffman, Cat Hawkins, Lawrence, David J, Magness, Dawn R, Morton, John M, Nelson, Elizabeth A, O'Malley, Robin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decision making
Ecological conditions
Ecology
Natural resource management
Natural resources
Resource management
Strategic management
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Summary:Abstract Natural resource managers worldwide face a growing challenge: Intensifying global change increasingly propels ecosystems toward irreversible ecological transformations. This nonstationarity challenges traditional conservation goals and human well-being. It also confounds a longstanding management paradigm that assumes a future that reflects the past. As once-familiar ecological conditions disappear, managers need a new approach to guide decision-making. The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework, designed for and by managers, identifies the options managers have for responding and helps them make informed, purposeful, and strategic choices in this context. Moving beyond the diversity and complexity of myriad emerging frameworks, RAD is a simple, flexible, decision-making tool that encompasses the entire decision space for stewarding transforming ecosystems. Through shared application of a common approach, the RAD framework can help the wider natural resource management and research community build the robust, shared habits of mind necessary for a new, twenty-first-century natural resource management paradigm.
ISSN:0006-3568
1525-3244
DOI:10.1093/biosci/biab067