The fifth annual Collaborative Adaptive Management Network (CAMNet) Rendezvous was held Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17, at Antioch University New England (AUNE).
The theme of the conference, Adaptive Governance in the Face of Environmental and Social Change, emphasized emergent, place-based approaches to natural resources management. Attendees looked at innovation in three area—fisheries, forestry, and climate change action—during these panel sessions:
The Maine Lobster Fishery and New England Groundfishery. Panelists shared lessons from the recovery of the Maine lobster fishery, how science informs management of this resource, and how management decisions are made.
Conservation and Management Across Boundaries and at Different Scales in the Northeast. Panelists gave examples of collaborative, place-based approaches to resource conservation in New England community forestry.
Climate Adaptation. The panel explored adaptive governance and climate change on local, regional and state scales.
The keynote speaker was Kevin Moriarty, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Other speakers included Ted Ames of Penobscot East Resource Center in Maine, Scholar in Residence at the Bowdoin College Coastal Studies Center, and a MacArthur Fellow; and Lynn Scarlett, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Charles Curtin, core faculty member in AUNE’s Department of Environmental Studies, and Herman Karl, retired from the U.S. Geological Survey, were co-chairs of the planning committee for the conference and were also on the program. Jim Gruber, core faculty member in AUNE’s Department of Environmental Studies, was on the local advisory committee.
Curtin proposed Keene as this year’s location to the CAMNet board. “I wanted to bring the meetings that had largely been out West in the past to New England, where there are more locally-based examples of collaborative conservation and science,” Curtin said.
Sponsors of the conference were AUNE, PBS&J, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program.
CAMNet began in 1999 as a network of practitioners, scientists, researchers, and others who use adaptive management, which constantly adjusts to new scientific and socio-economic information, to solve problems in natural resources.
Find out more about CAMNet.
