Navigating Ecological Transformation: Resist–Accept–Direct as a Path to a New Resource Management Paradigm

2021/06/07 by Gregor W. Schuurman, Gregor W Schuurman, David N. Cole +17 · 239 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · #Business #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Ecology #Economic and Environmental Valuation #Economics #Ecosystem #Ecosystem management #Environmental resource management #Face (sociological concept) #Forest Management and Policy #Geography #Knowledge management #Management science #Natural (archaeology) #Natural resource #Natural resource management #Paradigm shift #Resource (disambiguation) #Resource management (computing) #Social science #Sociology #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/biosci/biab067

published in BioScience 72(1), 16-29 (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 2021/06/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Abstract Natural resource managers worldwide face a growing challenge: Intensifying global change increasingly propels ecosystems toward irreversible ecological transformations. This nonstationarity challenges traditional conservation goals and human well-being. It also confounds a longstanding management paradigm that assumes a future that reflects the past. As once-familiar ecological conditions disappear, managers need a new approach to guide decision-making. The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework, designed for and by managers, identifies the options managers have for responding and helps them make informed, purposeful, and strategic choices in this context. Moving beyond the diversity and complexity of myriad emerging frameworks, RAD is a simple, flexible, decision-making tool that encompasses the entire decision space for stewarding transforming ecosystems. Through shared application of a common approach, the RAD framework can help the wider natural resource management and research community build the robust, shared habits of mind necessary for a new, twenty-first-century natural resource management paradigm.

Citations

• Intervention Ecology: Applying Ecological Science in the Twenty-first Century

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