USE AND ABUSE OF ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT LAW AND PRACTICE: A CANADIAN EXAMPLE AND GENERAL LESSONS

Arlene J. Kwasniak ()
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Arlene J. Kwasniak: University of Calgary, Faculty of Law, 4312 MFH, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T3A1L7, Canada

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), 2010, vol. 12, issue 04, 425-468

Abstract: Adaptive management theory recognises that we cannot make foolproof predictions of environmental impacts of human interventions into complex ecosystems. It mandates that environmental managers retain the ability to respond to change and inaccurate predictions. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) authorises government to implement adaptive management into project follow-up. A key Canadian court decision has interpreted this to mean that adaptive management enables projects to proceed when mitigation measures are uncertain, that could be used in tempering the significance of impacts, and that it offsets the impact of the precautionary principle. Taking a legal perspective, the paper discusses how adaptive management may benefit environmental assessment, how the CEAA uses it, how a court has misinterpreted its role in the CEAA, and how it relates to the precautionary principle. In closing the paper sets out general lessons from the Canadian experience for the use of adaptive management in environmental assessment generally.

Keywords: Adaptive management; environmental assessment; Canadian Environmental Assessment Act; mitigation; follow-up; precautionary principle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1142/S1464333210003723

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