Measures

1. Measures Measures Matter!

2. Key Points to Introduce This Step • Measures Matter! • Often seen as last step or too challenging, so neglected • Provide transparency and accountability • Enable adapting and learning • Strategy Effectiveness vs. Status • Adaptive Management vs. Early Warning

3. Key Points to Introduce This Step • Measures are embedded in your CAP • Look to your objectives, KEA’s and threats • Well developed objectives will lead to good indicators • The measure of our effectiveness ultimately will be seen as a change in threat ranks and enhanced viability

4. Key Points to Introduce This Step • 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

5. Critical Questions • Has at least one indicator and monitoring protocol been identified for each threat abatement and restoration objective? • Do the indicators provide any link to the actions taken? • Can the monitoring plan be feasibly implemented?

6. Common Issues & Recommendations 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

7. Common Issues & Recommendations Often 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 • Setting up smaller experimental trials may help us get an indication of how the larger system will perform in advance of full investment in a restoration strategy

8. Common Issues & Recommendations Completing the adaptive management cycle • Establish explicit mechanism for analyzing monitoring data, communicating results, and adapting and learning • Keep it as simple as possible • Introduce teams to the CAP self assessment tools for at least a first pass • Even a once a year – After Action Review can be helpful

9. Helpful Hints… Common Issues & Recommendations • Status vs. effectiveness • Consider the targets where you will definitely be taking action and establish effectiveness measures for these first. • Effectiveness: Target vs. threat monitoring • As first cut, monitor indicators that directly reflect objectives

10. Helpful Hints… Clearly stated objectives spell out priority measures needs Project: Cookson Hills Objective: • Secure legal protection on 18,000 acres by 2015 Indicator: • Acres in legal protection (addresses critical threat)

11. 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. Helpful Hints…. Follow the trail from targets to objectives - Molokai Example Target: Montane wet forest, south slope mesic forestThreat: Wildfires Objective: By 2009, reduce the amount of burned native ecological system to zero.

12. Helpful Hints…. Common Issues & Recommendations • 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.

13. Helpful Hints… 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”)