Measures

Measures Matter!

Conservation Coaches Network New Coach Training

• Measures Matter!– Often seen as last step or too challenging, so

neglected – Provide transparency and accountability– Enable adapting and learning

Key Points to Introduce this Step Measures

• Strategy Effectiveness Measures

– Are our conservation actions having their intended impact?

– Used for Adaptive Management

• Status Measures– How is the biodiversity we care about doing?– How are threats to biodiversity changing?– Is the capacity to improve conservation changing?– Can be used for Early Warning

Key Points to Introduce this Step Measures

• Measures are embedded in your plan

– Look to your KEA’s, threats, and objectives

• If you’ve developed your goals and objectives well, defining indicators should be really easy

• Our ultimate measure of effectiveness will be seen as a change in threat ranks and enhanced viability

Key Points to Introduce this Step Measures

• Evaluating our progress doesn’t always need to be complicated or costly

• The complexity of our monitoring methods should depend upon the complexity, uncertainty and risk of our strategies

• Monitoring data must be analyzed and results used to inform next iteration

Key Points to Introduce this Step Measures

• Can the monitoring plan be feasibly implemented?

• Is the team clear about what indicators are the most important to measure now? Later?

• Do they have a cost-effective way to measure their indicators? Do they have the capacity to do it?

Critical Questions to Ask the Team Measures

Issue: Changes in biodiversity health and threat status can lag well behind the time we take action.

– Developing a “theory of change” (i.e. results chain model) can help us to find measures that will help us to evaluate whether things are likely to be going in the right direction

Common Issues & Recommendations Measures

Issue: What is the appropriate level of investment between taking action, assessing status, measuring effectiveness?– No easy answers. Consider:

• Presence of known, serious threats• Level of understanding of targets, threats, and

their linkage• Degree of certainty in effectiveness • Risks of action – ecological, economic,

reputational, etc.• Available resources

Common Issues & Recommendations Measures

Issue: Completing the adaptive management cycle– Establish explicit mechanism for analyzing

monitoring data, communicating results, and adapting & learning

– Keep it as simple as possible

– Even once per year, a review is helpful

Common Issues & Recommendations Measures

Project: Cookson Hills

Objective: • By 2015, secure legal protection of 18,000

acres of Cookson Hills.

Indicator: • # of acres of Cookson Hills that are legally

protected (addresses critical threat)

Clearly stated objectives spell out priority measures needs

Helpful Hints Measures

• Develop a first cut at your objectives and brainstorm indicators with the whole team.

• Refining indicators and developing monitoring protocol is a specific area of expertise that differs with different systems and life forms. Get the experts involved in the nitty-gritty of monitoring protocol design.

• Often tons of information is already collected by government and university partners – always consider these sources before investing in new data collection.

Helpful Hints Measures

Common Issues & Recommendations Results chain models

– Help us to determine what indicators are likely to tell us the most about whether our strategic actions are or are not having an impact–Help us to understand important benchmarks along the way towards success (“interim objectives”)

MeasuresHelpful Hints

Riparian System

with Salmon

Surfacewater

diversions

AgriculturalPractices

Motivate farmers to change to low- water

crops

River flow regime

• Objective: Decrease the average amount of surface water diverted from the XYX River in the Upper Watershed section in August to less than X gallons/day by 2010.

– Strategic Action: Lobby for government incentives to motivate farmers to switch to low water need crops

Effectiveness example

changereduced

restored

Riparian System

with Salmon

Surfacewater

diversions

AgriculturalPractices

Motivate farmers to change to low- water

crops

River flow regime

1. Numbers of salmon redds or # of adults returning to spawn

1

2. Water flow measurements

2

3. Volume of water withdrawn for agricultural purposes

3

4. Hectares of farm land converted from water-intensive crops to low-water need crops

4

5. Strategic Actions and Action Steps implemented

6. Resources Spent (Staff & $$$)

56

+Socioeconomic indicators?

Possible indicators