Adaptive learning in NRM for climate change adaptation

Abstract

Regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies across Australia are currently incorporating climate change adaptation information into their regional NRM plans, drawing on information produced from eight research clusters under the NRM Planning for Climate Change Fund. This paper looks at the approach being undertaken in the East Coast Cluster focused on a Planners Working Group. Following a workshop involving stakeholders from the East Coast Cluster, the initial needs analysis identified the need for capacity building for the NRM bodies to best use the information available at any point in time. In the current NRM context, this includes processes that: facilitate transfer of knowledge and interactions between and within regional bodies; improve learning and capacity building at the institutional scale; and develop the capacity of planners to incorporate continuous information flows into NRM plans. Successful implementation of these processes requires individual, institutional and social learning. Learning is often identified as a key component of adaptive capacity in relation to climate change, but has only recently been included as an explicit strategy in adaptive management. This project defines adaptive learning as the application of individual, institutional and social learning to adaptive management. A conceptual model has been developed that identifies components of adaptive learning that could be enhanced through this project to contribute to advancing regional NRM responses to climate change: group learning, concurrent learning and cross-- ]regional documentation. Approaches to implementing these strategies within the cluster are discussed, along with suggestions for further development and application of this approach.