River Protection Workgroup Process

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The Nature Conservation Action Planning (CAP) Conservancy 0 SAVING THE LAST GREAT PLACES ON EARTH The Nature Conservancy achieves conservation results by designing and implementing conservation projects at multiple scales. Over the past 15 years,TNC has developed an integrated process for planning, implementing,and measuring conservation success for its conservation projects. This process is called the "Conservation Action Planning(CAP)"process. The CAP process has been tested with a wide range of projects from different parts of the world and is supported by a network of trained CAP professionals that make up the Efroymson Coaches Network for Conservation Action Planning. The CAP process guides project teams to identify effective conservation strategies. It provides an objective,consistent and transparent accounting of conservation actions and the intended and actual outcomes of conservation projects. It enables project staff to responsively adapt their actions to improve strategy effectiveness and achieve greater conservation impact. A brief summary of the CAP Process is provided below. For a full set of CAP and Efroymson Coaches Network news,tools,training opportunities,examples,and guidance documents,visit www.conserveonline.orq/workspaces/cap/. THE 10 STEPS OF THE CAP PROCESS Defining 1. Identify People Involved In Your Project Your Project This step asks you to identify your most valuable Project people resource—the people who will be involved in Project ta &focal designing and implementing your project. Addresses questions like: •'Who will design our project?, •'Who will be responsible for ensuring the plan goes forward? " 'Who can give us advice?, •'Who will help us through this process?" Using Results to Developing Adapt&Improve Conservation Strategies&Measures Target viability Analyze actions&data Action Critical threats 2. Define Project Scope & Leam from results Situation analysis Adapt project Planning Objectives&actions Focal Conservation Targets Share findings Measures With this step you define the extent of your project and select the specific species and natural systems that your project will focus on as being representative of the overall biodiversity of Implementing the project area. This step helps your project team Strategies&Measures come to consensus on the overall goal and scale of Develop workplans Implement actions the project and your ultimate measures of success. Implement measures Addresses questions like: •"Where is our project?", ♦'What are we trying to conserve or restore?" 3. Assess Viability of Focal Conservation Targets This step asks you to look at each of your focal targets carefully to determine how to measure its "health" over time. And then to identify how the target is doing today and what a"healthy state"might look like. This step is the key to knowing which of your targets are most in need of immediate attention,and for measuring success over time. Addresses questions like: ♦`How do we define `health'(viability)for each of our targets?", •"What is the current status of each of our targets?", ♦'What is our desired status for each of our targets?"