Conservation Coaches Network
Workshop Presentation

Adaptive Management Workshop
Presentations
1A-1B. Team, Scope, Vision
1B. Conservation Targets
1B. Viability Assessment
1C. Threat Rating
1D. Conceptual Models
2A-1. Strategy Selection
2A-2. Results Chains
2A-3. Goals and Objectives
2B. Monitoring
Plan

Plan Your Actions
& Monitoring
Strategy
Selection

Brainstorm &
Select Strategies
Strategy
Selection

Brainstorm &
Select Strategies
X
X
Strategy
Selection

This Presentation
1. What Are Strategies
2. How to Brainstorm & Select Strategies
3. Example
Strategy
Selection

What are Strategies?
Strategy
Selection
Strategy: A group of actions with a common focus that work together to reduce threats, capitalize on opportunities, and/or restore natural systems.
 designed to achieve specific objectives and goals
 includes one or more activities
 generally developed to influence key intervention points in your conceptual model

Difference Between a
Strategy and an Activity
Strategy
Selection
Within a Strategy (a group of actions with a common focus)… e.g., create markets in sustainably harvested fish
Activity – A specific action or set of tasks, within an overall strategy e.g., conduct feasibility tests, train fishermen in new techniques, identify markets for fish…

Define Your Strategies
Strategy
Selection
A Good Strategy Meets the Criteria:
Linked to Critical Factors: Directly affects one or more critical factors in your conceptual model
Focused: Outlines specific courses of action that need to be carried out
Feasible : Accomplishable in light of the project's resources and constraints.
Appropriate : Acceptable to and fitting within projectspecific cultural, social, and biological norms.

General Types of
Strategies
Strategy
Selection
Threat
Abatement
Strategy
Restoration
Strategy (to enhance viability)

Hints for Naming
Strategies
• Start with a verb
Strategy
Selection
Certification
VS.
Change forest code to permit certification
• If useful, specify who
WCS will change forest code to permit certification
• Clearly describing the strategy may require a longer name - or
(better) a description in “details”
(in Miradi)
Complete legal analysis and work with Forest
Department to change forest code to permit certification

Examples of Strategies
Strategy
Selection
• Obtain legal protection for vernal pool grasslands
• Manage dredging activity to maximize habitat creation for Reddish Egrets
• Build awareness of agricultural best management practices
• Work with hydropower company to manage flows and increase fish passage
• Strengthen fishing regulations
• Identify, detect and control invasives

This Presentation
Strategy
Selection
1. What Are Strategies
2. How to Brainstorm & Prioritize Strategies
3. Example

How to Brainstorm &
Prioritize Strategies
Strategy
Selection
1. Select a direct threat and target(s) and review contributing factors
2. Select key intervention points
3. Brainstorm potential strategies to influence key intervention points
4. Rate strategies
5. Select final strategies
6. Apply criteria for strategies

Our Example-
Swan Coastal Plain Wetlands
Strategy
Selection
Adapted from WWF Australia ’s Wetlands Watch Project

1. Select a Threat and
Target, Review Contributing
Factors
Strategy
Selection
Illegal clearing by landowners
Eucalyptus woodlands
Seasonally flooded wetlands

1. Select a Threat and
Target, Review Contributing
Factors
Strategy
Selection direct threat, rightclick & select
“Brainstorm mode”

Brainstorm Mode in Miradi
Strategy
Selection

Questions to Keep in Mind
Strategy
Selection
• In reviewing the factors contributing to this threat, make sure that you can answer these questions:
– What is causing this threat to happen? What social, economic, cultural, political and institutional factors are contributing to the threat?
– Who is involved – directly or indirectly?
– Why are they doing it?
– Are there opportunities – factors that could contribute to reducing the threat?

If Necessary, Add
Missing Factors
Strategy
Selection

2. Select Key
Intervention Points
Strategy
Selection
Select “ key intervention points ” – factors that need to be changed to reduce the threat

2. Select Key
Intervention Points
Strategy
Selection
Select “ key intervention points ” – factors that need to be changed to reduce the threat

3. Brainstorm Potential
Strategies to Influence
Key Intervention Points
Strategy
Selection

Advice for Strategy
Brainstorming
Strategy
Selection
• Consider the scale at which you are working and whether your strategies should be broader or more specific (e.g., a strategy at the site level could be an activity at the ecoregional level)
• Don’t limit yourself to typical strategies or what you are already doing – think broadly!
• Consider what your team will do vs. what other organizations/partners will do

3. Brainstorm Potential
Strategies to Influence to a key intervention point. This strategy is designed to increase landowner awareness of laws by involving them in land use planning
Strategy
Selection

3. Brainstorm Potential
Strategies to Influence
Key Intervention Points
Strategy
Selection

4. Rate Strategies –
2 Criteria
Strategy
Selection
Potential Impact – Degree to which the strategy
(if implemented) will lead to desired changes in the situation at your project site
• Very High – The strategy is very likely to completely mitigate a threat or restore a target.
• High – The strategy is likely to help mitigate a threat or restore a target.
• Medium – The strategy could possibly help mitigate a threat or restore a target.
• Low – The strategy will probably not contribute to meaningful threat mitigation or target restoration.
I break this into 2 steps: Rate & weed out

4. Rate Strategies –
2 criteria
Strategy
Selection
Feasibility – Degree to which your project team could implement the strategy within likely time, financial, staffing, ethical, and other constraints
• Very High – The strategy is ethically, technically, AND financially feasible.
• High – The strategy is ethically and technically feasible, but may require some additional financial resources.
• Medium – The strategy is ethically feasible, but either technically OR financially difficult without substantial additional resources.
• Low – The strategy is not ethically, technically, OR financially feasible.

4. Rate Strategies in Miradi
Strategy
Selection

4. Rate Strategies in Miradi
Strategy
Selection

4. Rate Strategies in Miradi
Strategy
Selection

5. Select Final
Strategies
Strategy
Selection
Weed out strategies not likely to be the most effective
X X

5. Select Final
Strategies
Strategy
Selection
Weed out strategies not likely to be the most effective
?
X X

5. Select Final
Strategies
Strategy
Selection

5. Select Final
Strategies
Strategy
Selection

Final Strategies in the
Conceptual Model
Strategy
Selection

6. Apply Criteria for
Strategies
Strategy
Selection
• Linked to Critical Factors: Directly affects one or more critical factors in your conceptual model
• Focused: Outlines specific courses of action that need to be carried out
• Feasible : Accomplishable in light of the project's resources and constraints.
• Appropriate : Acceptable to and fitting within site-specific cultural, social, and biological norms .

This Presentation
1. What Are Strategies
2. How to Brainstorm & Select Strategies
3. Example
Strategy
Selection

Example of a Strategy
Brainstorm
Strategy
Selection
San Luis Obispo Science and Ecosystem Alliance
(SLOSEA, California, USA)

Key Points
Conservation strategies are a group of actions designed to enhance viability of a target (GOAL) and/or abate a critical threat (OBJECTIVE).
Goals & Objectives – What you want to accomplish
Strategies – How you are going to get there
Complex projects & problems require suite of strategies.
The job is to get the “colors” in the Viability and Threat tables from Red & Yellow to Green – often a life’s work.
3 to 5 well-crafted strategies is a lot of work!!!

Relationship Between a
Goal, Strategy and Activities
Strategy
Selection
Goal
(restoration)
Strategy
Within five years replace 20 % of the lost mangrove population
4. Establish a replanting program.
Activity #1 4.1 Collect seedlings
Activity #2 4.2 Cultivate plants
Activity #3 4.3 Organize volunteers
Activity #4 4.4 Prepare site and plant mangrove seedlings
Activity #5 4.5 Provide maintenance until seedlings are well established