Challenges for catchment management agencies: Lessons from bureaucracies, business and resource management

Catchment management agencies (CMA's) have no tested precedent in South Afr ica and will have to evolve in complex and changing business, social and na tural environments as they strive to ensure that equity and social justice are achieved within ecological limits. Traditionally, very different styles of management have been used for resource exploitation and resource protec tion and this will present a serious dilemma for CMAs. As the human population has grown and natural resources have declined, ther e has been increased effort to control nature in order to harvest its produ cts and reduce its threats. Initially such "command-and-control" management has been successful as agencies prosper on short-term gains. However, when natural variation is reduced the ecosystem loses its resilience and abilit y to "bounce back" from disturbances. The first lesson we can learn is that the longer term consequence of command-and-control management is always ei ther a reduction or cessation of resource supply. The second lesson comes from adaptive resource management (ARM). ARM acknow ledges that, because nature is in a continual state of flux and our underst anding of ecosystem functioning is poor, a fundamental problem for decision makers is that they must deal with uncertainty from an imperfect knowledge base. A learning-by-doing approach becomes a prerequisite for effective ma nagement. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency to superimpose adaptive management on bureaucratic institutional structures. Such flouting of the f undamental management axiom "form must follow function", has thwarted many attempts at adaptive management. This provides our third lesson. Recognition that authoritarian, command-and-control, bureaucracies respond too slowly to survive in changing environments has led managers in governme nt, industry and businesses to create "learning institutions" which combine adaptive operations and generative leadership (lesson four). Effective kno wledge management is seen as a critical success factor in turning command-a nd-control management into adaptive, learn-by-doing management (lesson five ). CMAs which recognise the dangers of excessive command and control, the need to integrate stakeholder values and activities, and the potential of an ad aptive and generative management approach, will need to structure their act ivities carefully. At present there is much focus on the structure of CMAs and much less on ho we they should function. Form is preceding function in many instances. When function is discussed it centres on how regulatory mechanisms and permit s ystems will keep resource use under control. The concern is seldom with how the ecosystem will be managed. This sort of thinking could lead to a class ic command-and-control management approach if not tempered with a more adap tive process. Strategic adaptive management (SAM) is a local derivative of ARM designed t o generate consensus management which is inclusive, strategic, adaptive and creative. SAM is a process in which effective knowledge management is cent ral to building a partnership between science, management and society to ac hieve a common vision. It has considerable potential for application to CMA s.