Full Conservation Action Plan

Full Conservation Action Plan

 

Task Description:

Notes on Assignments 2 and 3: These assignments involve developing a conservation action plan for a species, following a simplified version of the Conservation Action Plan and Open Conservation methods. The final plan will be submitted as Assignment 3. Assignment 2 involves submitting a draft of the first part of the plan, allowing an opportunity for feedback that you can draw upon to improve the final, complete plan.

Develop a conservation action plan for a threatened species (if necessary, a species within a particular part of its range, such as within a specific country). You may choose any species you like – plant, animal, terrestrial, marine or freshwater. However, while you should choose a species for which there is a good amount of accessible literature, try to avoid choosing one for which there is already a good conservation action plan that follows the structure we request here, as it is important for your thought processes to be original and not simply rewording a plan that already exists. We will suggest some suitable species to consider, if you are unsure of which to choose.

Your conservation action plan should be informed by your understanding of conservation action planning and related approaches, based on the practical sessions, set references, and wider reading. You should use careful literature searches to identify both journal articles and ‘grey’ literature such as reports and existing conservation plans that can inform your understanding of the species, the threats it faces, and conservation actions that may be appropriate and effective.

Note: more information and guidance will be provided in practical classes and via the course Blackboard site during semester. Details of the original Conservation Action Planning Process can be accessed here: http://conserveonline.org/workspaces/cbdgateway/cap/practices.html, but note that a simplified version will be used for these assignments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment 3.  Full Conservation Action Plan

3000 words maximum in total (including parts 1-8) – 45%

You must include Parts 1-3, as developed in Assignment 2, as the first part of this Assessment item. You may revise the material from Assignment 2 before you submit it as part of Assignment 3. In addition, you must include in your submission Parts 4-8. Thus, Assignment 3 includes the following:

 

1. Project scope & focal conservation target

• A brief text description and basic map of your species, and the project area and scope
• A simple, one-sentence statement of the overall vision of your project

2. Key participants

• Describe and justify who would be the key participants in the development of a conservation action plan for this species, with text supported by a table

3. Attributes and indicators

• List the proposed indicators (things you can measure) for two to three attributes of your species (such as population size or nesting success), with a brief justification of why each was selected.

 

4. Current and target condition and trend

• Thoroughly review the literature about this species. For each ecological attribute with its measurable indicator, assess and summarise in a Table:

• Is it in a good, fair, or poor condition?
• Is its condition improving, stable, or declining?
• For each of these judgements, indicate the level of uncertainty.
• What is the goal state and trend for each indicator? Make these desired outcomes as “SMART” as possible.

5. Stresses and critical threats

• Summarise the main stresses that are causing the undesirable state and/or trend of each attribute. In a simple table, classify the threats based on their severity and scope.
• Summarise the main sources or causes of these stresses.

6. Conservation Strategies

• What are the opportunities for actions to reduce the critical threats to each attribute?
• Create a simple diagram of your hypothesized linkages between indirect threats and opportunities to reduce them, including the critical threats, and focal targets and their attributes.

7. Measures and Monitoring

• What will be monitored to evaluate the progress and success of the plan? This will include your indicators for each attribute, but may also include indicators of stresses/threats.

8. Caveats and limitations

• Briefly summarise any caveats, such as which assumptions are being made? What needs to occur outside of the action the project team can take? What information would you like to have to improve the plan?

 

 

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