Topic I: Documenting BCN's Conservation Success

1. Introduction

The first of BCN's two main goals is to promote enterprise-oriented approaches to biodiversity conservation at a number of sites across the Asia/Pacific Region. To this end, the BCN and its partners need to document the impact of the program in achieving this goal.

BCN staff have been working closely with USAID's Global Bureau to develop a series of indicators that can be used to track the impact of the program in achieving USAID's stated Strategic Objectives. This analysis will build upon this existing indicator work to provide comprehensive documentation of BCN's conservation impact.¹

2. Analytical Design

2.1 Indicators Being Tracked by USAID
The first part of this analysis involves tracking the conservation impact indicators developed by USAID in conjunction with BCN staff and other partners to meet certain defined information needs. These information needs are described in the far left hand column of Table 1-1.

2.2 Additional Indicators Required by BCN
Although the indicators required by USAID cover many aspects of conservation, owing to their general nature, they do not cover all the specific elements of BCN's success. In particular, the USAID indicators do not sufficiently document the specific enterprise-oriented conditions that BCN is looking at. Furthermore, with their focus on immediate results, the USAID indicators do not give sufficient weight to the institutional development and learning that is a necessary pre-condition for conservation to occur. To this end, BCN will also collect data for additional indicators that will help us to assess our progress in meeting our first goal in these areas. These specific information needs are described in the far left hand column of Table 1-2.

3. Data Needs and Analytical Tools

The data required for each indicator are listed in the second column of Tables 1-1 and 1-2. In addition, for each indicator we have listed the anticipated source of the data. Most data will be collected through the six-month technical reports submitted by BCN Grantees and the site visit reports completed by BCN staff members. The protocol for collecting all indicator information is listed in Appendix E.

Data for most of the indicators will be analyzed using straightforward descriptive statistics and simple graphical analyses. A few of the indicators, however, involve the calculation of a composite index that assesses progress in meeting the objective or intermediate result. In addition, the information from the quantitative analyses will be supplemented with qualitative analyses of the conditions at each site, focusing in particular on tracing the impact of project interventions on the conditions for conservation.

Table 1-1. Indicators Being Tracked by USAID Relevant to the BCN Program

Strategic Objective (SO), Intermediate Result (IR) or Other Information
Indicator	Data Needs	Data Source	Comment
SO: Area of biologically important habitat under effective management
1. Number of Sites and Area (ha)	- Area of each site - Map showing areas under adaptive management regime - Evidence that habitat quality is being maintained	Indicator section of technical reports and maps supplied by projects	Sites do not refer to BCN-funded projects, but specific locations within the projects (see Section II)
2. Documented improvements in biodiversity conservation as a result of strengthened policies	- List of policies being worked on - Documentation showing that policy leads to conservation	Tech reports Site visits	Need to obtain documentation
IR1: Increased public awareness and decision-maker understanding of biodiversity and its conservation
1-1 Number of people participating in awareness workshops and networking meetings and attending presentations	- Number of people attending these workshops and meetings	Tech reports	This does not include training workshops (see IR4-2)
1-2 Number of publications sent to appropriate audiences and number of media events held	- Number of different publications - Number of copies distributed - Number of media events	Tech reports Site visits
IR2: Strengthened national and local policies and/or improved policy implementation
2-1 Index of policy results	- List of all policies undertaken - Description of whether following steps have been undertaken: policy analysis, communication and educational activities, policy adoption, policy implementation	Tech reports	BCN POs to track for each project
IR4: Improved management of globally and locally significant biodiversity sites
4-1 Index of site management benchmarks	Which of these have occurred? - Change in legal status favoring conservation - Local site assessment - Management actions designed - Human and institutional capacity developed - Management actions implemented - Monitoring and evaluation - Adaptive management shown	Tech reports Site visits	BCN POs to track for each project
4-2 People successfully trained	- Number of people trained	Tech reports
IR5: Sustained financing of biodiversity conservation
5-2 Number, value, and beneficiaries of viable enterprises supporting biodiversity conservation	- Number of viable enterprises that are conducting monitoring - Gross sales for each enterprise - Number of people receiving direct benefits - Number of people receiving indirect benefits	Tech reports Enterprise analyses

Table 1-2. Additional Indicators to be Tracked by BCN

Information Need
Indicator	Data Needs	Data Source	Comment
Enterprise Success
1. Profit	- Revenues (Qty * Price) - Variable Costs - Fixed Costs	Enterprise records	See calculations for LE4 factor in Appendix C.
2. Amounts of Benefits Accrued to Stakeholders	- Wages - Dividends - Other Benefits	Enterprise records	See calculations for GB1 factor in Appendix C.
Institutional Development
3. Capacity Building	- Change in capacity of institutions to address conservation problems	Project records Key informant interviews	To be coordinated with BSP wide indicators.
4. Institutional Learning	- Enhanced knowledge about successful approaches to conservation	Project and program records	To be coordinated with BSP wide indicators.

4. Potential Audiences and Outputs

Important audiences for this analysis include the stakeholders at the various project sites, USAID Missions and Bureaus, the United States Congress, and US Taxpayers. The results of this analysis will document the degree to which BCN and its partners have been able to achieve their conservation goals.

Results of this analysis will be sent to USAID on an annual basis as part of the normal indicator process. In addition, at the end of the program, BCN will produce a poster (perhaps building on the BCN Map) documenting the conservation achievements at the sites where BCN has worked. We may also develop a slide presentation that can be given to USAID and other audiences and try to do one or more press releases and a presentation to Congress.

---

¹ These materials drawn from the Performance Monitering Plan published by USAID's Center for the Environment in the Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support, and Research.

WHY BIODIVERSITY   FIELD STORIES   PARTICIPATE   RESULTS   MARKETSPACE ABOUT THE NETWORK   WHAT'S NEW   LEARNING MATERIALS   SEARCH   LINKS   SITE MAP   HOME