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Community-Based Adaptive Management (CBAM)

Using video to monitor reefs in Fiji. Photo: Toni Parras

In the simplest terms, CBAM is a management cycle where local stakeholders make a plan, implement the plan, check how it is going, revise the plan (if necessary), and carry on.

Monitoring and communication must be integrated into the overall project cycle because they are essential for generating and sharing information about the LMMA upon which management decisions are made.

By systematically moving through the cycle, project teams can test different assumptions about their actions and use the results to adapt their actions and increase their effectiveness over time.

Monitoring training, Indonesia. Photo: Cliff Marlessy

The term “community-based” is used to describe the role played by community members and local user groups in the management of the area. Other stakeholders may include local and national organizations, government and businesses, and others.

“Adaptive management” refers to an ongoing cycle of checking the plan and modifying as necessary.

Many projects within the Network use a CBAM approach in their work with LMMAs. The LMMA Network provides guidance and capacity-building to members in the use of community-based adaptive management.

CBAM is part of the Four Phases to LMMA Establishment. The figure below depicts a typical process for engaging communities in the assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring of an LMMA.



The Four Phases to LMMA Establishment (drawings based on Anna Balla’s illustrations in
Measures of Success, Margoluis and Salafsky, 1998; revised by Vecxel Design Studio)