Goals
Determining monitoring goals

Broadening Participation in Biological Monitoring:
Guidelines for Scientists and Managers
David Pilz, Heidi L. Ballard, Eric T. Jones
©2005 Institute for Culture and Ecology

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Purpose and intended results—Beginning with a clear understanding of the purpose and intended results of a monitoring project is essential to success. Clear understanding of goals is especially important in collaborative endeavors. If there is not a common understanding of purpose, stakeholders will follow divergent paths. If there is not a common understanding of what all the collaborators wish to achieve, efforts are likely to be misdirected or unfocused, and disappointment can be expected. Documentation of such understandings can take the form of vision statements, mission statements, goals, or objectives. Often it is useful to create a series of such statements from the more general to the more specific. Many groups find that holding one or more meetings solely for the purpose of establishing the goals and objectives of a monitoring project is time well spent.

Indicators and measures—Once all collaborators understand and agree upon the project’s purpose and intended results, then it is much easier to select indicators that are likely to yield useful information within the budget and timeframe of the project. Indicators are what will be measured or evaluated. Indicators (such as the viability of the population of an endangered species) can then be tracked with specific measures (for instance, abundance of reproductive females in a given area). Often there is historical data available about past ecological conditions in an area, including stories and observations made by local people. Exploring these sources of information before defining goals, indicators and measures can sometimes help focus and improve the efficiency of monitoring efforts.

Biodiversity monitoring—Because it is not possible to monitor every organism, monitoring of biodiversity must, by its very nature, involve abstractions and assumptions about what to monitor. Examples of approaches include focusing on endangered species, economically important species, charismatic macro-fauna, indicator species, native or introduced species, rapid diversity appraisals, or creating species lists (of organisms that are easy to see and identify). The means of inventorying or monitoring biodiversity will depend largely on the goals of the project and the available resources. Although inventories, that is, one-time enumerations, are occasionally the goal of a biodiversity project, we focus predominantly on monitoring trends in biodiversity. Details on indicators and measures for biodiversity monitoring are discussed in the Indicator module.

Context—The purpose of monitoring biodiversity is always imbedded in a larger context. For example, federal land management agencies sponsor ongoing scientific data collection such as Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in response to legal, policy, or regulatory requirements. For corporate forest landowners, the requirements of the Endangered Species Act or Habitat Conservation Plans might motivate monitoring projects. For local communities, it could be the desire to create local forest employment opportunities that are sustainable. For Native Americans, the context could be maintaining the health of important natural resources for cultural use or traditional livelihoods. Often, the context of a monitoring project has many aspects that overlap, especially if there are multiple stakeholders involved. If a monitoring project is part of a larger monitoring program such as FIA, then careful attention must be paid to the degree of compatibility between the goals of the local project and those of the larger program, including how much effort will be allocated to meet the needs of each. Considering the total context of a monitoring project is essential to developing clear understandings about purposes and intended results. We address these and other aspects of context in greater detail in the Context module.

Checklist—

¨ What are the specific monitoring goals of the project?

¨ What is the process used to reach agreement on those goals?

¨ If the project is part of a larger program, what are the goals of that program?

¨ Is there overlap or conflict between local and larger-scale monitoring goals?

¨ How will project resources be allocated between the project and larger programs?

¨ What will be the overall context of the monitoring project?

¨ For each monitoring goal, what indicators and measures will be used to address each goal?

References—Bliss and others 2001; Collaborative Forest Restoration Program 2004a, 2004b, 2004e; Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network Coordinating Office and the Canadian Nature Federation 2003; Elzinga and others 2001; Kerns and others 2002; Krishnaswamy 2004; Lawrence and Ambrose-Oji 2001; Lindenmayer 1999; Lynch and others 2004; National Commission on the Science for Sustainable Forestry 2005; Ottke and others 2000; The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2001b; Wright n.d.