Options for planning management

Abstract

Monitoring for conservation purposes should be based on objectives developed as part of a management plan. Unfortunately, management planning guidance varies considerably. Here, the critical decision-making is dealt with, and the smaller planning jobs are relegated to simple project planning. Conservation planners can make considerable progress with the bigger decisions by making sure that they understand their site, by clarifying the relationships between the various conservation plans that include the site and will be produced for the site, and by approaching planning through considering sets of options. These option sets should cover the possible futures for the site, the candidates for management, the objectives, the actions that will secure the objectives, and future-proofing of the management. Finally, the conservation planner must learn how to identify the assumptions and risks inherent in each option. Armed with the outputs from this process, the planner is ready to make the bigger conservation decisions about the site, including the monitoring projects. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.