Governance and adaptive management for estuarine ecosystems: The case of Chesapeake Bay

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Abstract
This article analyzes the governance system of the Chesapeake Bay Program in order to examine the hypothesis that it operates according to adaptive management principles. After a discussion of adaptive management and implementation, we analyze the development of the program from its inception in 1976 until the present day. We argue that adaptive management in the program came about via a dynamic relationship between science and governance that evolved through three phases over 16 years. During this time, the Chesapeake Bay Program developed a learning, adaptive capacity whereby program elements and institutional structures underwent significant changes in light of new information. This approach encouraged the evolution of the program from one that initially addressed a limited number of issues using a rudimentary management structure to the current program, which uses a sophisticated set of baywide indicators of ecosystem health and is governed by an institutional structure that coordinates management activities across federal, state, and local governments around the bay in order to implement 29 specific programs in six major policy areas. The article concludes with an overall assessment of the Chesapeake Program that identifies its major strengths and weaknesses. Among the latter are the overall cost of the program, particularly initial investments in characterization and later expenditures on a bay model, and the lateness of evaluative efforts. Finally, we note the difficulty of operationalizing the concept of ecosystem management and the necessity of relying on surrogates to evaluate progress in ecosystem restoration and protection.