Kangaroos are commercially harvested in five mainland states of Australia, with the harvest regulated by state government wildlife management agencies and overseen by the Commonwealth government. Non-commercial culling is permitted, and although most kangaroos have traditionally been taken by the commercial kangaroo harvesting industry, the proportion taken non-commercially has increased in recent years. Management plans that guide the regulation of the harvest support the management objectives of wildlife management agencies and the kangaroo industry, but the plans do not successfully address the objectives of other stakeholders including pastoralists and animal protection groups, which focus on minimising the grazing impacts of kangaroos and animal welfare issues respectively. We reviewed the objectives outlined in the management plans for kangaroos in the Australian rangelands and examined alternative systems for managing natural resources to identify if improvements to management could be made. Current management plans for kangaroos principally use fixed harvest rates that are responsive only to the state of the kangaroo population and not to changes in the environments in which kangaroos live. This type of management is reactive, and opportunities for improving management of the environment are limited. A viable alternative is active adaptive management which focuses on explicit measurement of the response of the natural system to management actions and use of this information to modify interventions to better meet management objectives. Active adaptive management is appropriate when management actions can strongly influence system state but the impacts of management are uncertain. We argue that the management of kangaroos and the environments in which they live would benefit from the adoption of an active adaptive management approach by wildlife management agencies.

袋鼠在澳大利亚五个大陆州进行商业性收获，其收获由州政府野生动植物管理机构监管，并由联邦政府监督。允许非商业饲养，尽管传统上大多数袋鼠是由商业袋鼠捕捞业采用的，但近年来非商业性捕捞的比例有所增加。指导收获管理的管理计划支持野生动植物管理机构和袋鼠产业的管理目标，但该计划并未成功解决其他利益相关者（包括放牧者和动物保护组织）的目标，后者致力于最大程度地减少袋鼠的放牧影响和动物福利问题。我们审查了澳大利亚牧场中袋鼠管理计划中概述的目标，并研究了用于管理自然资源的替代系统，以确定是否可以改进管理。当前的袋鼠管理计划主要使用固定的收成率，该收成率仅对袋鼠的种群状况做出响应，而不对袋鼠生活环境的变化做出响应。这种管理是被动的，改善环境管理的机会有限。可行的替代方法是主动适应性管理，该方法专注于显式测量自然系统对管理行为的响应，并使用此信息来修改干预措施以更好地满足管理目标。当管理行为可以强烈影响系统状态但管理的影响尚不确定时，主动自适应管理是适当的。我们认为，袋鼠和其生活环境的管理将受益于野生动物管理机构采用主动的适应性管理方法。