Adaptive management: from ecology to public administration

Abstract

Plants, organisms, and the environment in which they live influence one another, and on this relationship depends the survival of a species. Man recently started paying special attention to ecology: this fact has led to the development of adaptive management as an answer to the unpredictable development of the species and has also highlighted the importance of protecting the environment. This paper presents a theoretical and a practical perspective on the adaptive management which is applied in ecosystems and shows the possibilities for implementing adaptive management in public administration, thus transforming it into an adaptive administration with added use of adaptive administration theory. The aim of this work is to approach adaptive management from a historical point of view and to follow its transference from ecology to public administration. The expected result is that public managers will develop new methods to manage public administration for the benefit of the citizens.   Keywords: ecosystems, public administration, adaptive management