Reference: IUCN/SSC (2008). Strategic Planning for Species Conservation: A Handbook. Version 1.0. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN Species Survival Commission.
Conservation planning step(s) when this would be used:
This tool would be used at the Preparing to Plan step to assist with identifying and prioritizing a list of workshop process participants or other project collaborators.
Description of tool use: This tool uses a simple spreadsheet format to assemble information on the full range of possible stakeholder organizations. Each stakeholder is characterized based on a set of attributes including: subject matter expertise; level of current engagement in conservation of the species of interest; degree of influence over project outcomes; and likelihood of being impacted by project outcomes.
With this information, each stakeholder can be mapped onto a simple priority landscape on the basis of the value of their participation in the planning process.
Experience and expertise required to use the tool: Little or none. Once explained, the tool is intuitive to use as a means of gathering basic information on the various stakeholders and as a visual aid to collective decision-making.
Data requirements: A list of potential collaborators/attendees and knowledge of their relevant attributes, as collected in the spreadsheet discussed above.
Cost: Free
Strengths and weaknesses: This can be particularly useful for high profile conservation planning situations where there are many interested parties and relatively few workshop “seats”. Care must be used to ensure unbiased and objective characterization of stakeholder groups to avoid unwarranted exclusion of some groups based on past experiences.
Case study: Consider the following set of stakeholders that could be invited to a hypothetical conservation planning workshop for a tropical forest mammal:
- High-level representative of the national wildlife management agency – Given critical priority as they have considerable decision-making authority and could be markedly impacted by intensity of future regulatory activities.
- Farmer who owns land within the focal species’ native habitat – Given critical priority as they are likely to experience significant economic impacts from actions taken within the species’ range
- Conservation biologist with expertise on the focal species in the field – Given high priority as they have a significant impact on planning outcomes through existing data availability, and the impact that planning outcomes have on their future field study projects.
- Marine ecologist who works in the nearby coastal areas – Given interest priority as they are unlikely to deliver a significant impact on the nature of recommendations (low data availability) and will be minimally impacted by actions taken in the tropical forest zone.
- Urban citizen representative who strongly favors development of the local forest resource – At best, given interest priority as they are unlikely to offer constructive and collaborative participation in the decision-making process. If they are openly hostile to long-term species conservation efforts, they may be removed from the list of potential participants.
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Contributor(s): Philip Miller
Affiliation: IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group
Email: [email protected]
Date: April, 2024