Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
7
long-term sustainability
In Chapter 6, we discussed a range of approaches to conservation management.
Here we talk about how to implement conservation interventions in practice. We
show how to draw together all the elements that we have discussed in previous
chapters to build a robust framework for management. Research and management
are mutually reinforcing, such that research results feed into management plan-
ning, but monitoring of the sustainability of our interventions deepens our scien-
tific understanding of the system, which in its turn influences our management
strategy.
We start the chapter by laying out some of the realities of conservation that people
learn through experience but are rarely explicitly stated. We go on to consider setting
clear objectives for your intervention, how to ensure that you can demonstrate
whether you have succeeded or failed, and whether the output measures that are
commonly used are really measuring the effectiveness of conservation interventions.
This leads into a discussion of monitoring—the methods by which we can track
progress towards sustainability. Monitoring requires the data collection techniques
that we set out in Chapters 2 and 3, but we also need to consider pragmatically what
is and is not feasible in the long term, given the financial and human resources avail-
able to us. We use the data we have collected to give us an understanding of the
dynamics of the system, which enables us to make decisions. Here the analytical tech-
niques we discuss in Chapters 4 and 5 come into play. We also need to consider that
we as managers are part of the system, and there are new tools available to extend our
models explicitly to include our management actions. Some of the management
options that are available to choose from were discussed in Chapter 6. The final sec-
tions of the topic remind us that conservation of exploited wildlife does not happen
in a vacuum—there is a context of social, political and environmental change that
impacts on our actions, and which we need to integrate into our planning.
There are many texts available which give excellent advice on how to set up and man-
age conservation projects, emphasising inclusion of stakeholders, clear management
