Adaptive Conservation Management (5-minute Video)

Adaptive conservation management focuses on learning through doing.

It is a dynamic and flexible approach that allows conservationists to respond to changing environmental conditions and new information.

Treating management actions as experiments enables continuous learning and improvement, making it particularly valuable in Africa’s complex and often unpredictable ecosystems.

Wildlife managers use adaptive management to maintain biodiversity while addressing challenges such as wildlife species overpopulation, poaching, habitat degradation, and tourism pressure.

Conservation managers frequently adjust patrol strategies, anti-poaching technologies, and community engagement programs in response to data from wildlife monitoring systems.

They may also experiment with different tourism management techniques to balance conservation with economic benefits to local communities.

Wildlife officers from the Natal Parks Board were some of the first proponents of adaptive management.