Conservation Action Planning Measures of Success! The Essentials

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 Acquire properties with areas of native bush >50ha Covenant properties with areas of native bush >50ha Develop culture, infrastructure, mechanisms and practices to support private conservation management Acquire good information on sound ecological management Increase amount of habitat for W&Ps by 10,000ha and connect all isolated habitat >50ha by 2012 Restore habitat on geographically and ecologically suitable properties A monitoring plan is driven from 3 different sources: Objectives and work plan Viability table Threat table We have a need to track indicators for all stated objectives in our work plan. This provides information driving our adaptive management efforts. This effectiveness monitoring will often include threat and viability indicators that are directly tied to our conservation actions. We also have a need to track indicators for key ecological attributes listed in our viability table that are not tied to specific objectives - this gives us the ability to report on the overall status of the biodiversity we are striving to conserve. We may also have a need to track indicators for identified threats that aren’t currently linked to objectives and actions but where we want to monitor them to determine if we should be taking action. We are recommending that our project teams start their monitoring planning by addressing the needs of their stated work plan. Assuming the objectives are addressing the highest priority threats and the key ecological attributes most in need of attention - this will direct the monitoring efforts to the most important indicators.

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 Size Population distribution population density in suitable habitat Fair Relative abundance Number of black-gloved wallabies recorded per km Number of tammars recorded per km travelled 4 Mallet and moort woodlands Fire frequency Fire return interval Condition Soil and litter dynamics Soil softness and dead organic matter Good Community distribution % of pre European coverage We are recommending that our project teams start their monitoring planning by addressing the needs of their stated work plan. Assuming the objectives are addressing the highest priority threats and the key ecological attributes most in need of attention - this will direct the monitoring efforts to the most important indicators.

Effectiveness vs. status monitoring (1) Are our conservation actions having their intended impact? 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? This prompts us to answer both Effectiveness and status monitoring questions: Effectiveness monitoring addresses the question: “Are our conservation actions having their intended impact?” Status monitoring focuses solely on answering the questions: “How is the biodiversity we care about doing?” and “How are threats to biodiversity changing?”

What about status monitoring? Periodic check-ups Blood pressure Cholesterol Early warning detection Status monitoring often serves as the basis of determining when actions are needed Periodic medical checkups provide a status assessment for your body This status assessment provides a confirmation that everything is O.K. The status assessment might reveal some problem that triggers taking action Maybe the blood pressure or cholesterol levels are too high and some treatment is prescribed. Once treatment is being administered – you now shift from a status-only situation to one where you now have an interest in determining the effectiveness of the treatments. It is important to note that you might track some of the identical indicators to measure strategy effectiveness as you were when you were only doing status assessment. For example, you might measure cholesterol levels every 3 months for a couple of years to measure the effectiveness of a particular cholesterol lowering strategy. The indicator – has shifted from status to effectiveness because the objective or reason for tracking the indicator has shifted. If problem detected… Take action Monitor effectiveness

Balancing action, effectiveness, status 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 There is no prescriptive solution for balancing effectiveness vs. status types of monitoring or even the balance of taking action vs. monitoring progress. Some issues to consider include: · Presence of known, serious threats · Level of understanding of conservation targets, ecological processes, & likely impacts of threats – what levels of uncertainty exist? · Degree of certainty in effectiveness (and risks) of alternative management strategies ·Available resources - We believe that most conservation projects will want to collect some combination of target and threat-based indicators to both assess status and measure effectiveness. But the exact combination will depend on the specific situation at the project site. I do have a manuscript in press right now that offers more guidance on this resource allocation topic and it includes a decision tree to guide individuals through this process. I’m happy to share a pre-publication version of this paper to anyone interested.

Tips to reduce monitoring costs 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

Common monitoring pitfalls 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 Here is a list of common pitfalls Most of us have done one or more of these things Consequently we have a fear of measures and monitoring To get over our fear and so that we can really benefit we have a suggestion for how to get started….

about progress towards each of your OBJECTIVES Measures The essential ingredient.... A small number of simple metrics designed to tell you about progress towards each of your OBJECTIVES

General Recommendation….. Establish objective-based effectiveness measures and monitoring protocol first Then add status indicators, as truly warranted

Objective-based Monitoring

Follow the trail from targets to objectives Objective: By 2009, reduce the amount of burned native ecological system to zero. Target: Montane wet forest, south slope mesic forest Threat: Wildfires Methods: Map location and extent of wildfire Notice and record events and times. Indicators: Acres of native ecological system burned. Number of hours between reporting and containment of fire event.

Pacaya-Samiria example Follow the trail from targets to objectives Pacaya-Samiria example Objective: By ___, decrease the extraction of natural resources by ___ amount. Target: Bosques de Colinas (Hill Forests) Threat: Illegal Logging (Very High) Methods: Remote Sensing Seizure records + observed shipments Indicators: Forest Cover # & length of forest openings Cubic meters of seized timber

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

Exercise Establish Effectiveness Measures Choose one objective for which you developed strategic actions. “Follow the trail” from the strategic action to the objective to the threat to the target. Review the threats table and viability table information. Identify/choose indicator(s) to measure progress towards your objective. Articulate the method(s) you would recommend to monitor the chosen indicators. 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 prairies Threat: 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

The Essence of Adaptive Management 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