RAD - Resist-Adapt-Direct

The adaptation-resistance spectrum: A classification of contemporary adaptation approaches to climate-related coastal change

Andrew Cooper

Resist-accept-direct (RAD)—a framework for the 21st-century natural resource manager

An assumption of stationarity—i.e. “the idea that natural systems fluctuate within an unchanging envelope of variability” (Milly et al. 2008)—underlies traditional conservation and natural resource management, as evidenced by widespread reliance on ecological baselines to guide protection, restoration, and other management. Although ecological change certainly occurred under the relatively stable conditions of the recent past, the nature of change under intensifying global change is different; it is unidirectional, and rapidly pushing beyond the bounds of historical variability. In the past, a manager could plausibly work to reverse or mitigate many stressors or their impacts to approximate Schuurman GW and Others. 2020. Resist-accept-direct (RAD)—a framework for the 21st-century natural resource manager. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NRSS/CCRP/NRR—2020/ 2213. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2283597