Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
●
Stick to your strengths
. You don't have to do everything all at once. If your
strength is in scientific research then that's fine, so long as you make it policy-
relevant and engage with other people who will be using your work.
●
Contribute to
reporting
and meta-analysis of conservation experience
(through
www.conservationevidence.com),
however painful it may be if your
experience is not of success.
The first step in designing a conservation intervention is to have some goals. The
conservationist's overarching goal may be deceptively simple—to save species X
from extinction. But this needs to be quantified. What do we mean by 'saved from
extinction'? A population in a gene bank or zoo is probably not what we had in
mind, but then what is a viable wild population? How many individuals do we
need, and how much habitat?
In a small-scale, short-term intervention, we may have a less ambitious goal; to
stabilise the population of species X in area Y within timescale Z. We then need to
quantify what we are going to do to achieve this goal, and how we are going to
measure whether we have achieved it or not (Figure 7.1).
Stages
Inputs
Process
Outcomes
Goal
More effective anti-
poaching
Fewer animals
killed
Population
stabilises
Activities
Train rangers
Number of
training days;
Certificates
awarded;
Exams passed
Surveys of
animal
abundance
Poaching signs or
carcasses
observed; Number
of poachers
arrested; Local
attitude surveys
Number of days
patrolled;
Thoroughness of
reporting; Spatial
coverage
Measures
Surveys indicate
population not
declining/
increasing with
sufficient power
for confidence in
results
10 rangers
trained in basic
survey methods
Patrols 6 days a
week covering
>10% of Park area,
fully documented in
log books
Number of
poachers arrested
and poaching
signs drop to zero
by end of project
Targets
Fig. 7.1
The steps involved in conservation interventions, together with
measurable targets illustrated for a project to improve law enforcement in a
Protected Area.
