Climate change adaptation requires multi-level approaches from local communities to global institutions.  Appropriate governance at respective levels depending on jurisdiction, mandate, interest and capacity is necessary for maximising outcomes.  Ensuring actors at various levels know, understand and agree on their roles and place and those of their partners within the local to international hierarchy is critical. This awareness is also important in developing the authority and responsibility of those best placed to lead their level of action.   

While Natural Resource Management organisations in South Australian are well placed to drive adaption they are seen as constrained, by history, policy and legislation and independent strategies and actions, in making effective contributions.   Development of an adaptive governance framework through enhancing actors' understanding of their roles in their networks will strengthen the coordination and cohesiveness of climate change adaptation decision making necessary to ensure appropriate outcomes.

While substantial work has been done on the adaptive capacities of ecosystems and landholders less attention has been paid to the adaptability and evolution of governance systems. These systems need to be dynamic, responsive to changing social-ecological contexts, diverse and nested. 

No single discipline is seen as sufficient in providing a full picture so lessons from literature covering polycentric or multilevel governance, resilience planning, complexity and systems thinking, adaptive capacity and operating in an uncertain world are being used to develop a conceptual model of an adaptive governance framework. This framework is anticipated to guide thinking and actions across jurisdictions and differing policy, legislative and institutional arrangement.