ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the challenges experienced in developing and applying the concept and methods of adaptive collaborative management (ACM) in forest governance and management in a number of countries. The analysis is primarily based on my reflections on the experience of working as the team leader of the ACM program at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). These reflections focus on how ACM evolved within CIFOR, what worked and what did not in the course of applying ACM, and what challenges the ACM team had to face – within the team, in the organization, in the field and with the donors. In so doing, I demonstrate how ACM processes emerge and are influenced by the underlying institutional, policy and knowledge systems environment within which ACM is applied.2
