Conservation Action Planning

Measures of Success!

The Essentials

Defining Your Project

Developing Strategies &

Measures

Implementing Strategies &

Measures

Using Results to Adapt & Improve

Developing Strategies & Measures

· Target viability· Critical threats· Situation analysis· Objectives & actions· Measures

Measures Matter! • Tell us if our actions achieving their intended results • Enable adapting, learning, & sharing

• Provide Early Warning if things change

• Provide transparency and accountability

• Secure future funding

What You Want to Know• Are your strategies working?

• Are your threats declining??

• Are your targets stable or improving???

• Can you correct course if you need to????

• Was it all worthwhile?????

Measures are embedded

• Look to your objectives

• Look to your Key Ecological Attributes and indicators

• Look to your threats table

For Example

1. Objectives and work plan (effectiveness monitoring)

# Objectives and Strategic Actions

Objective Conservation management of all existing 2004 priority communities (PC / Yates / OS) >50ha by 2012

Strategic action Demonstrate a high standard of ecological management for application across all tenures

Strategic action Acquire properties with areas of native bush >50ha

Strategic action Covenant properties with areas of native bush >50ha

Strategic action Develop culture, infrastructure, mechanisms and practices to support private conservation management

Strategic action Acquire good information on sound ecological management

Objective Increase amount of habitat for W&Ps by 10,000ha and connect all isolated habitat >50ha by 2012

Strategic action Restore habitat on geographically and ecologically suitable properties

Strategic action Acquire good information on sound ecological management

2. Target viability analyses

Focal Target Category Key Ecological Attribute

Indicator Current

Status

3 Tammars and black-gloved wallabies

Landscape Context Dispersal Distance between suitable habitats

 Poor  

3 Tammars and black-gloved wallabies

Size Population distribution population density in suitable habitat

 

Fair  

3 Tammars and black-gloved wallabies

Size Relative abundance Number of black-gloved wallabies recorded per km

    

3 Tammars and black-gloved wallabies

Size Relative abundance Number of tammars recorded per km travelled

 

Fair  

4 Mallet and moort woodlands Landscape Context Fire frequency Fire return interval  Fair  

4 Mallet and moort woodlands Condition Soil and litter dynamics

Soil softness and dead organic matter

 Good  

4 Mallet and moort woodlands Size Community distribution % of pre European coverage

 Fair  

Status(2) How is the biodiversity we care about doing?

(3) How are threats to biodiversity changing?

(4) Is the capacity to improve conservation changing?

Effectiveness(1) Are our conservation actions having their intended

impact?

Effectiveness vs. status monitoring

• Periodic check-ups– Blood pressure– Cholesterol

• Early warning detection

• If problem detected…– Take action – Monitor effectiveness

What about status monitoring?

Issues to consider:• Need for action given known, serious threats

• Level of understanding of conservation targets, ecological processes, & likely impacts of threats

• Degree of certainty in effectiveness (and risks) of alternative management strategies

• Available resources

Balancing action, effectiveness, status

Useful monitoring plans

Tips to reduce monitoring costs• Consider low-cost, qualitative options rather than no monitoring

• Consider less frequent monitoring visits rather than no monitoring

• Use partner data whenever possible

• Engage local people & volunteers in monitoring efforts

• Lack of a clearly stated purpose

• Inefficient/ineffective indicators or methods

• Data gathered but never summarized

• Data summarized but not interpreted relative to objectives

• Data summarized and interpreted but not relayed to managers

• Data useful at the project level but lessons learned are never shared beyond the project

Common monitoring pitfalls

Measures

A small number of simple metrics designed to tell youabout progress towards each of your OBJECTIVES

The essential ingredient....

General Recommendation…..• Establish objective-based effectiveness

measures and monitoring protocol first

• Then add status indicators, as truly warranted

Objective-based Monitoring

Indicators:

• Acres of native ecological system burned.

• Number of hours between reporting and containment of fire event.

Methods:

• Map location and extent of wildfire

• Notice and record events and times.

Objective: By 2009, reduce the amount of burned native ecological system to zero.

Target: Montane wet forest, south slope mesic forestThreat: Wildfires

Follow the trail from targets to objectives

Indicators:

• Forest Cover

• # & length of forest openings

• Cubic meters of seized timber

Methods:

• Remote Sensing

• Remote Sensing • Seizure records + observed

shipments

Objective: By ___, decrease the extraction of natural resources by ___ amount.

Target: Bosques de Colinas (Hill Forests)Threat: Illegal Logging (Very High)

Pacaya-Samiria example

Follow the trail from targets to objectives

Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks!• The Viability table is a place to harvest ideas for metrics but

you won’t want or need to monitor everything on that table.

• Beware a monitoring plan you will never execute. Or worse yet, one you will apply for a year or two and then abandon.

• Never monitor something you can’t or won’t do anything about.

Critical Questions• Do you have at least one indicator and monitoring protocol for your

priority objective(s)?

• Have inconsequential, irrelevant or redundant indicators been excluded? Never monitor something you don’t intend to act on.

• Can the monitoring plan be feasibly implemented?

Remember…

Monitoring requires time and money in your work plans & budgets

ExerciseEstablish Effectiveness Measures1. Choose one objective for which you developed strategic actions.

2. “Follow the trail” from the strategic action to the objective to the threat to the target.

3. Review the threats table and viability table information.

4. Identify/choose indicator(s) to measure progress towards your objective.

5. Articulate the method(s) you would recommend to monitor the chosen indicators.

6. Put your “trail” on a flip chart. You have one hour.

Objective: By 2010, Ensure reduction of at least 50% of off-road vehicle trails within the National Forest

Target: Black bear, mesic flatwoods and prairiesThreat: Off-road vehicles

Indicators:• Miles of roads and trails

actively used by OHV (threat)

• % of wetlands scarred by OHV trails (target)

Method:

• GPS survey for select areas of forest

• Aerial photographic interpretation

• Conservation Action Plans should be guides to action• They are hypotheses to be worked out in practice, to be rejected,

corrected, and expanded as they fail or succeed in giving us the guidance needed to inform our present needs

The Essence of Adaptive Management