Reference or attribution: see Case Study below.
Conservation planning step(s) when this would be used: Share, Learn and Improve
Description of tool use: The tools included here help us evaluate both the planning process itself and its downstream consequences. They help us learn how participants experience planning, how they use its outputs, what changes they observe following or because of planning, and they capture insights and perspectives that can help us make improvements.
The purpose of these particular tools is to learn and improve the planning part of the project management cycle. These tools are not suited to evaluating the effectiveness of strategies or actions as part of adaptive management, or to reviewing plans for the purpose of iterative revision.
The tools comprise two surveys: one to be taken by planning participants immediately following an in-person planning workshop or at the end of an on-line planning process. The second is for circulation to the same people at least three years after the planning process and at least one year after the final report has been circulated. In addition, we provide templates for reporting the aggregate results.
The surveys are also available in multiple languages. Contact CPSG directly for access to these: info@cpsg.org
Strengths and weaknesses, when to use and interpret with caution: the questions are designed in part to test CPSG’s ideas about how CPSG-style planning is expected to influence conservation outcomes for species. They may be less suitable for evaluating methods based on other, different “theories of change”.
Here we provide only the survey questions, in a format that can be printed out and circulated as handouts at the end of an in-person meeting. Most people using these surveys transfer them to an electronic survey application so that they can be circulated via a link (e.g. Google Forms, Survey Monkey etc.).
Experience and expertise required to use the tool: these tools are simple and do not require specialist expertise.
Data requirements: The tools are designed to collect data and have no data requirements of their own.
Cost: FREE
Case study: The following reference provides the results of analyses carried out using previous iterations of the surveys described here.
Vredenburg, H., and Westley, F. R. (2003) Logic Models for Building Knowledge and Networks: Early Evaluations of the PHVA Approach. Pp 83-105 In: Westley, F. R. and Miller, P.S. (Eds). Experiments in Consilience: Integrating Social and Scientific Responses to Save Endangered Species. Island Press.
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Contributor(s) name: Caroline Lees
Affiliation: IUCN SSC CPSG
Email: caroline@cpsg.org
Date: June 13, 2024