1. Adaptive Co-Management as an Emergent Strategy
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
THE INVISIBLE WAND
Adaptive Co-Management
as an Emergent Strategy
in Complex Bio-Economic Systems
A Paper written by
Jack Ruitenbeek and Cynthia Cartier
Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Occasional Paper No. 34, October 2001
Presentation by Rowan B. Martin
illustrated with René Magritte’s paintings

2. 
Proposition:
Adaptive Co-Management is
an Emergent Strategy

3. Complex systems produce surprises
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
Complex systems produce surprises
Emergence
happens at a
system level but
not at an individual level
Emergence might be seen rather as a property of a complex system, since strategies apply to individuals

4. The question of emergence is critical for a very simple reason –
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
The question of emergence is critical
for a very simple reason –
If ACM is naturally emergent, policy interventions are likely to do more harm than good
If it is not, then it may be prescribed as a policy tool and we may design ways to make it work

5.  Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
There are a number of cases where ACM regimes have evolved without apparent external intervention –
Forest management in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India
Land co-management by over 1,000 village-level co-operatives
Mangroves management by coastal communities in Thailand
Marine and coral reef management in Palau
Coastal fisheries management
in Fiji, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga
Forest management in the North Uplands of Vietnam
Forest co-management in Hainan, China

6.  Proposition: Some general findings from these studies –
Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
Some general findings
from these studies –
1. Conditions were more stable and sustainable where the co-management regimes had undergone a natural evolution

7.  Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
2. National management rules seen as relevant and subsequently adopted as local rules appear to have better compliance than either purely national or purely local community rules

8. 3. Where regimes have been imposed by
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
3. Where regimes have been imposed by
central governments, none of the models
(e.g. co-management, private ownership, state control) appear to generate local well-being or resource protection

9.  Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
Some conjectures –
1. As simple systems evolve through time into complicated systems and eventually complex systems,
they will
adopt management strategies which are progressively more adaptive – culminating in some form of ACM

10. will fail . . . 2. Systems that mismatch the level of complexity
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
2. Systems that mismatch the level of complexity
to the management regime
will fail . . .

11. . . . whether the management regime was evolving
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
. . . whether the management regime was evolving
within the system –
or whether it was imposed
BLUEPRINT

12. evolutionary processes
 Proposition: Adaptive Co-Management is an Emergent Strategy
Some conjectures –
Premature introduction of ACM as a policy intervention may lead to system failure because it disrupts existing
evolutionary processes
ACM