2013 ADAPTool Application Adaptive Policy Analysis of Forestry and Wetlands Policies in Manitoba

The Adaptive Design and Policy Assessment Tool (ADAPTool) is an Excel-based online tool developed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and partners as a structured guide through an assessment process that compares existing policies and programs to the characteristics of adaptive policies.

The ADAPTool assesses policies or programs in relation to a defined stressor or external change. It produces two kinds of assessments: 1) it gauges the ability of existing policies or programs to support adaptation measures undertaken in response to the specified stressor by the policy target groups; 2) it assesses the general adaptability of the policies or programs themselves, which is to say, whether they likely to respond well under the influence of the defined changes as well as under unforeseeable changes in the future? The ADAPtool builds on IISD-led research on Creating Adaptive Policies.

This pilot application of the ADAPTool in Manitoba had two main goals: (1) to evaluate a suite of policies from the forestry sector using the ADAPTool for existing policies and (2) to pilot a version of the ADAPTool for new policies to inform the design and details of a Manitoba wetlands policy still in development. This report provides details on the process and results for the use of the two versions of ADAPTool for existing suite of policies and the design of a new policy.

In the first application, the ADAPtool for existing policies was applied to a suite of three, forestry policies in Manitoba. IISD and analysts from the forestry branch of Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship (CWS) conducted the ADAPtool analyses, including initial project scoping (including choice of policies to be analyzed); training on use of the ADAPtool; literature review and vulnerability assessments for the forestry-relevant sectors; adaptation analysis, adaptive policy analysis and final reporting on results.

For the second application, we applied a beta version of an ADAPTool for new policies to a prospective wetlands policy in Manitoba. This analysis was a little more iterative and IISD analysts worked closely with water policy analysts at CWS to find the most relevant scope for this application.

In the ADAPTool analysis for existing policies applied to three forestry policies, we developed specific recommendations to improve the adaptability of the policies where they were somewhat lacking. In the ADAPtool for new policies application on an undeveloped wetlands policy, we determined that, while this tool might be useful for those just starting to think about a new policy, because the wetland policy had already been in progress for a number of years, the process was not deemed particularly useful but did provide some insights on potential co-benefits from the policy.