REFERENCE: Waltner-Toews, David, James Kay, Tamsyn P. Murray, Cynthia Neudoerffer, "Adaptive Methodology for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health (AMESH): An Introduction"

DRAFT: 28 February 2003: This version is Not for Citation

Submitted for:
COMMUNITY OPERATIONAL RESEARCH: SYSTEMS THINKING FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT; Gerald Midgley & Alejandro E. Ochoa-Arias (Eds.) Kluwer Press

NOTE: It is not our practice to post papers that are still under review. However this paper has gone through over 10 revisions and we have had a number of requests for copies of it. For these reasons we have decided to make an exception in this case.

Adaptive Methodology for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health (AMESH): An Introduction

David Waltner-Toews, James Kay, Tamsyn P. Murray, Cynthia Neudoerffer

This work is an effort to operationalize the concept of sustainable development with a view to improving human health and nutritional security without compromising the integrity of underlying ecological structures and processes. In this regard there is need to: 1) elaborate a fundamental systemic theory of complexity in socio-ecological systems; 2) define a theoretical framework for identifying, in any given situation, the practical implications of that theoretical understanding for sustainable practices; and, 3), based on 1) and 2), elaborate methodological processes which enable decision-makers to evaluate the implications, make "best possible" decisions, monitor the impacts of those decisions, and adapt to changes in context. This paper describes an Adaptive Methodology for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health (AMESH), developed in the context of several international development projects, which we believe incorporates much of our best current understanding in each of these domains. AMESH is rooted in theories of complex adaptive systems; the implications of this for practice are elaborated in a set of "guiding principles"; and the methodological processes are described in terms of sets of activities, themselves described in terms of "guiding questions." We incorporate examples from several projects to illustrate particular points.

Download the paper in Acrobat format (360K)

For more about the family of methodologies see: A collection of schematics of the ecosystem approach.

Back to JK publication page

Back to JK Home page