Guidelines for Monitoring and Evaluation of BCN-Funded Projects
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Guidelines for Monitoring and Evaluation of BCN-Funded Projects |
A Description of the Common Set of Questions that Grantees Need to Address to Assess the Biological, Social, Political, and Economic Impacts of their Projects
Version 1.1
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. BIOLOGICAL MONITORING
3. SOCIAL-POLITICAL-ECONOMIC MONITORING
3.2 Political Context and Factors
4. ENTERPRISE MONITORING
5. OVERALL PROJECT EVALUATION
Note: This document is uncopyrighted. Please use and distribute the information contained within as needed. We would like to request, however, that you cite the BCN if you use material from this document and, more importantly, send us any comments that you might have about ways in which to make it better.
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Metro Manila, 1108, The PhilippinesTel: 63-2-426-5312
Fax: 63-2-426-53131.1 Why Monitoring and Evaluation are Important
The Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN) was established to 1) support site-specific efforts to conserve biodiversity at a number of sites across Asia and the Pacific, and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of enterprise-oriented approaches to community-based biodiversity conservation. To achieve these goals, BCN provides grants for projects that bring together organizations in Asia, the Pacific, and the United States in active partnerships with local communities to encourage the development of enterprises that are dependent on sustained conservation of local biodiversity.In order to successfully reach its goals, BCN requires that each project that it supports design and implement a comprehensive monitoring program. These monitoring programs should 1) provide the communities and their partner organizations with the information that they need to manage an ecologically, socially, and financially sustainable enterprise, and 2) provide BCN with the information that it needs to evaluate the overall effectiveness of enterprise-oriented approaches to conservation (Box 1).
1.2 Purpose of this Document
BCN supported projects involve many different kinds of enterprises ranging from small scale timber harvesting to butterfly collection to marine tourism. In addition, these projects occur in extremely diverse biological and socioeconomic contexts, ranging from projects in the Himalayan Mountains of India and Nepal to the coral reefs of Fiji. Finally, the groups that are implementing BCN-funded projects have a wide diversity of backgrounds and skills -- while some groups have extensive experience with biological conservation, others are more proficient in designing and running enterprises.This diversity of enterprise type, project location, and participant background is one of the foremost strengths of the BCN program. It also means, however, that from the beginning, it has not been possible for BCN to develop "cookbook" guidelines for monitoring and evaluation that would uniformly apply across all BCN funded projects. This difficulty in developing general guidelines has been further compounded by the fact that each community has its own specific information needs.
As a result, in its initial proposal guidelines, BCN requested that each project draw up detailed monitoring plans that would outline the specific questions that would be asked, the methods that would be used, the resources available, how data would be collected and handled, and what results were expected. To assist in this process, the BCN developed monitoring frameworks of biological, socioeconomic, and enterprise questions. These frameworks were intended to serve as a template from which communities and groups could select the questions that were most relevant to their situation and needs, discarding those that were not relevant, and adding others.
Over the past year, most groups in the BCN program have made considerable progress in developing and implementing their site-specific monitoring plans. However, in reviewing current proposals and technical reports, it has become clear that many groups are having difficulties in developing comprehensive monitoring plans. We have heard from a number of groups that BCN has not been clear enough in specifying what it expects in terms of monitoring and evaluation work. In addition, as BCN has refined its thinking about the analyses that will be needed to evaluate its core hypothesis, it has become increasingly apparent that it is necessary to ensure compatibility across monitoring efforts done by all projects to facilitate this analytical work.
To address these concerns, BCN has developed a set of "Guidelines for Monitoring and Evaluation of BCN-Funded Projects" which are presented in the remainder of this document. The questions in these guidelines are drawn from the original monitoring matrices presented in the BCN 1994 Annual Report. For each question, we have attempted to describe the purpose of the question, provide examples of the types of methods that can be used to answer the question, and offer suggestions as to how often the monitoring work should be conducted. Please note that this is only the first version of an evolving document which will undoubtedly be refined in the future in response to feedback based on project needs and realities.
1.3 How to Use these Guidelines to Develop a Monitoring Plan
As outlined in previous BCN documents, developing a monitoring plan involves determining:1) What questions need to be addressed,
2) What methods are available to answer each question,
3) What resources are available for monitoring (resources can include time, trained personnel, money, scientific data collected previously, and community knowledge),
4) Who will be doing the work and when they will be doing it, and
5) How the results will be collected and analyzed, and how and to whom they will be communicated.
These guidelines represent BCN's efforts to help projects think about Steps 1 and 2 above. Each project should use these guidelines to assist in developing and/or improving a tailored, site-specific monitoring plan that meets the needs of the communities/groups involved in the project and the BCN. The questions outlined in each of the following sections should be regarded as a "minimum set," meaning that while each project should try to develop monitoring plans to answer all of the following questions that are relevant, other questions can certainly be added. The BCN expects that most if not all of its grantees will also address additional questions that are of interest to the communities/groups implementing projects as well as to BCN itself.
BCN staff will attempt to work with project personnel during site and city visits to further develop these monitoring plans. In addition, BCN will be holding a series of workshops focusing on monitoring issues at which these questions can be discussed. These workshops will also hopefully allow groups to share and exchange their experiences which will further facilitate development of monitoring plans. BCN will also be developing and distributing materials describing in further detail some of the methods used to answer the questions outlined in this document. Ultimately, however, it is up to each project team to develop and implement a reasoned and well-thought out monitoring plan that meets the needs of the community, the project, and the BCN.
Please note that although in the interest of clarity we have tried to break out the questions into categories that employ common methods, the actual research plan that a group develops does not have to be divided in a similar fashion. Indeed, setting up research plans that combine questions should be encouraged wherever possible. For example, a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) that is used to survey who the stakeholders in the village are (Question S1) might also simultaneously be used to obtain data to answer many other questions such as ones about policing power (Question P2) or internal threats (Question T1).
1.4 Implementing and Refining the Monitoring Plan and the Overall Project
Once each project has designed its basic monitoring plan, the next step is to begin to implement it. Success in implementation will obviously depend in great measure on how well the plan has been designed and what resources are available to the project. A key aspect of successful implementation is that monitoring is an iterative process. Once the plan has been designed, it needs to be tested, revised in response to the test results, and revised again. Furthermore, monitoring is of no use unless the results of the monitoring efforts are used to revise and improve the overall project being monitored, again using an iterative process.
Box 1. BCN Core Hypothesis The Biodiversity Conservation Network's (BCN) Core Hypothesis is that if enterprise-oriented approaches to community-based conservation are going to be effective, then the enterprises must: 1) have a direct link to biodiversity, 2) generate benefits, and 3) involve a community of stakeholders.
More specifically, these three elements of the core hypothesis are:
In effect, the hypothesis is that if a community is receiving sufficient benefits from an enterprise that depends on biodiversity, then they will act to counter internal and external threats to that biodiversity.
- Linkage between the enterprises and biodiversity. The enterprises must directly depend on the in-situ biological resources of the region. The BCN thus seeks to identify enterprises that would fail if the biological resource base upon which they depend was degraded.
- Generation of short and long-term benefits. The enterprises must generate benefits (economic, social, and/or environmental) for a community of stakeholders both in the short run and, with a high probability, in the long run, after BCN funding ends.
- Community/Stakeholder involvement. The enterprises must involve members of the local community, and often others, who are stakeholders in the enterprises and thus in the biodiversity of the area.
Biological monitoring relates to the impact of the enterprise on the specific biological resource being exploited as well as on the ecosystems of the project site (Enterprise Specific Questions) and the overall success of the project in promoting biodiversity conservation at the site (Overall Conservation Questions).
2.1 Enterprise Specific Questions
The enterprise specific questions obviously depend on the specific nature of the enterprise or enterprise(s). For example, the questions that would be asked of a rattan harvesting enterprise are different than those that would be asked of a scuba diving tourism enterprise. For the purpose of this document, questions are generally related to "product harvesting" oriented enterprises. For each question, however, we have also noted how the question relates to "tourism" enterprises.
B2. Sustainability: Is the current/proposed product harvest rate sustainable? What is the optimum or maximum sustainable harvest rate?
Purpose: The first question seeks to discover if the core enterprise(s) as currently practiced will be sustainable in the near and long-term future. The question is probably most easily addressed by subdividing the overall question into a series of smaller questions: Does the manner in which the product is harvested enable multiple harvests from the same plant? If so, is there any long-term decline in harvest levels from stresses on the plant? If not, is there adequate regeneration of the plant species? Are seedlings surviving? Are they maturing? Although this question is most easily applied to product harvesting enterprises, it can also be applied to tourism enterprises if tourist visits to a forest or reef are thought of as "product." Sub-questions would then include: What is the impact of the tourism on the resource? What is the environmental carrying capacity (the number of tourists that can visit the site without causing significant degradation) of the resource?
The second question (which is much more difficult to accurately answer) seeks to discover how harvest rates should be adjusted to maximize long-term harvest potential. Ultimately, the community should know for each product the proposed harvested level from a specific area per season or per year, how much was actually harvested, and what adjustments need to be made in future harvests.
Suggested Methods: Sub-questions related to the sustainability of harvest rates could ideally be studied by measuring population levels of the target resource in both harvested (treatment) and non-harvested (control) areas over time including studies of production, dispersal, and survival rates of seeds/offspring. The size of the treatment and control areas will depend on the specific question being asked; studies of seedling regeneration may require much smaller plots than studies of adult fruiting cycles. Some of the sub-questions (such as determining the manner in which plants are harvested) could probably be best answered by interviewing/observing harvesters. In some cases, it may also be possible to study sustainability by closely following a population in a harvested area over time or by finding "already existing" control areas such as sacred forest groves. The question of what the maximum sustainable harvest is could ideally be answered by measuring the above parameters in a series of treatment areas subjected to different levels of harvesting. This may be difficult, however, in systems in which the resource being exploited has a long cycling period.
Frequency: Control and treatment plots to measure sustainability should be set up as soon as is possible (ideally before harvesting begins -- if this is not possible, then initial harvesting rates should be set low to reduce impacts). The plots should then be monitored at regular intervals whose length should be determined by the nature of the resource (at a minimum, once a year).
B3. Secondary Effects: What are the secondary effects of product harvest? Purpose: This question seeks to determine what the impact of product harvesting is on other species beyond the target ones of the enterprise. Research on this question should focus on those secondary species that are directly linked to the target species such as birds or animals that eat a fruit that is harvested or fish that depend on corals that are damaged by tour boat anchors.
Suggested Methods: This question could ideally be answered by monitoring the population levels of species linked to the target species in the control and treatment areas described above.
Frequency: Control and treatment areas should be surveyed at intervals as necessary, but at a minimum, at the start and end of the project. 2.2 Overall Conservation Questions
The overall conservation questions are perhaps the most important questions that BCN needs to have answered, since they will ultimately be used to determine the "success" of projects in meeting the BCN's primary objective of promoting conservation of biodiversity. Although BCN recognizes that it can often be very difficult to draw definite conclusions regarding conservation in a 3-4 year time frame, it is nonetheless of the utmost importance that we have at least some indications of whether or not conservation is occurring.
B4. Habitats: What habitats are present in the project area? How is the area of these habitats changing over time? Are habitats becoming more fragmented over time? Purpose: These questions seek to determine what habitats (such as lowland forest, swamp forest, atoll reefs) are present at the site and how they are being changed over time by project activities and internal and external threats to the biodiversity. Suggested Methods: These questions could be addressed by mapping the habitats in the project area using either recent aerial photographs/satellite imagery or traditional surveying techniques (using either compasses or a Global Positioning System (GPS)). Maps can be stored either on paper/plastic overlays or through the use of a computerized Geographic Information System (GIS). Frequency: At a minimum, maps should be made at the start and at the end of project activities. Note that it is more important to have a rough map that reflects the start and end of the project than a detailed map that never gets completed.
B5. Habitat Quality: What changes in habitat quality or integrity are occurring over time? What is causing these changes? Purpose: In addition to knowing the area of habitats, it is also important to know whether their "quality" is maintained. In this case, high quality refers to a habitat that is relatively intact (not fragmented), has most or all of the original component species, and does not have exotic or invasive species. This question seeks to measure how habitat quality is affected over the life of the project. Suggested Methods: This question could ideally be addressed by identifying "indicator" species for each of the habitats in the study area and then using censuses or plots/transects to measure the abundance and/or health of these populations over time. There are two main types of indicators that should be considered: 1) Indicator species that depend on the habitat being maintained in a healthy condition (such as helmeted hornbills that only live in intact lowland forest), and 2) Indicator species that are tied to the internal and external threats to biodiversity in the region (such as coral reefs that exhibit bleaching when cyanide is used to capture fish). It is thus of the utmost importance that each monitoring plan provide a detailed rationale as to why specific indicator species are being selected.
The actual methods that will be used to measure baseline levels of the indicator species and then subsequent changes will depend on the species being considered. Potential methods could include censuses of species, trap and releasing animals, inventories of populations in plots selected on a random basis, recording numbers of animals caught or sighted (heard) by hunters, and recording animals sighted/heard by community members while traveling along trails.
Frequency: The abundance and/or health of indicator species should be measured at a minimum at the start and the end of the project, although more frequent measurements may be necessary.
B6. Ecosystem Functioning: What changes are occurring in habitat/ecosystem functioning over time? What is causing these changes? Purpose: Another way in which to determine if conservation is occurring is to look at changes in ecosystem functioning over time to see whether vital ecosystem functions or important environmental services are being maintained. Suggested Methods: Specific methods depend on the ecosystems present at the site. Examples of potential monitoring efforts that could be undertaken include: monitoring water quality and quantity in springs, streams, and rivers; monitoring the height of the watertable; monitoring soil erosion and water runoff; monitoring soil fertility, soil humidity, and organic matter content; and monitoring temperature, rainfall and other climatic data. Frequency: Dependent on variables being measured.
B7. Other Economic Species: What other species (not targeted by the enterprise) are harvested from the project area by local residents and/or outsiders? Purpose: Although BCN is primarily interested in the resources being used by the central enterprises, we are also interested in knowing what other resources are being harvested in the study area. Knowledge about these resources is particularly important if the secondary harvesting activities have interactive effects with the core products being harvested. Suggested Methods: This question could ideally be answered by recording the type and volume of species/products used and tracking the frequency of and numbers of people engaged in such activities through observations of hunting/gathering by groups/individuals, monitoring trails or market collection points, surveys of sample households, and focal group discussions with various community groups to discuss such activities (see also baseline economic monitoring in Section 4.3 below). Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project. 3. SOCIAL-POLITICAL-ECONOMIC MONITORING
Social, political, and economic monitoring involve assessing the various factors that could potentially affect the success of the project. For each of these three areas, it is thus necessary to monitor both changes in the baseline context at the project site and specific factors related to the BCN Core Hypothesis.
3.1 Social Context and Factors
The social context involves the broad community of the project site and the stakeholders in the enterprise and the resource. Important factors include how the stakeholders are organized and what their capacity is to undertake the enterprise and project.
S1. Community Context: How is the project site defined? Who lives and/or works in the project site? Specifically, how many communities are there in the area? How many people are there in each community, broken down by gender, age, ethnicity, caste, religion, history of residency, or other major social division? How are population rates changing over time (including in and out migration)? Purpose: These questions seek to define the communities of the project site and how they are changing over time. Data gathered in response will provide critical background information that will enable project managers and the BCN to assess the impact of the project. Methods: Many of these questions could ideally be answered using government statistics or other data (although these data should be carefully verified). If government data are not available or do not seem reliable, then data can be collected by conducting censuses (if the population is small) or randomly selected samples of the overall population. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project, and ideally, once a year in between.
S2. Stakeholders: Who are the stakeholders in the resource, both within the project site and outside? How are the stakeholders distinguished from other community members (non-stakeholders)? What characteristics define them? Do these characteristics change over time? Purpose: Stakeholders are defined as those people who harvest, process, or trade a resource or benefit directly or indirectly in some other manner from it. These questions seek to determine how the stakeholders are defined, how they differ from other community members, and how these differences are changing over time. Information about stakeholders is necessary in order to ensure that the major players involved in the resource are included in the project. Note that these questions may overlap with some of the economic questions outlined in Section 3.2, Question EC1. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by first discussing with community members and other knowledgeable individuals who the stakeholders in the resource are and how they are defined, and then conducting interviews with a randomly selected subset of the stakeholder and non-stakeholder groups. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project, and ideally, once a year in between.
S3. Community Organization: How is the community organized? What types of institutions exist within the communities, particularly with regard to natural resource management? What is the role or function of these organizations? How has this role changed over time? How effective are they? Who participates in these organizations, by social division? Purpose: These questions seek to determine how the different stakeholders and the community as a whole make decisions, especially regarding natural resource use. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by consulting members of the community, perhaps in the context of a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). It is important to ensure that these consultations are not merely with one segment of the community (such as the formal leaders), but encompass the various social divisions within the community including women, ethnic minorities, etc. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project.
S4. Community Capacity: What are the skills and knowledge that are necessary for the community to participate in the enterprise(s) and manage the resource? Are the communities acquiring the necessary skills? What are the important constraints? Purpose: The first question seeks to determine what skills are required for participation in the enterprise. These skills could range from having knowledge of where, when, and how to harvest the resource from a tree in the forest to knowledge of how to keep the accounting books for the enterprise. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered through a combination of discussions with community members and other participants in the enterprise and direct observations. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project and at a mid-point interval. 3.2 Political Context and Factors
The political context involves determining how and by whom political decisions are made within the project area, both at a local level, and in conjunction with regional and national governments. Important factors include tenure rights over the resource and how such rights are policed (enforced).
P1. Political Context: How are the communities in the project site organized at a local level? What is the influence of regional and national governments, particularly with regard to the management of natural resources? Purpose: These questions are important to determine what political factors are potentially influencing and/or constraining the project. Note that although there will be some overlap between this question and Question S3, this question is focused less on resources and more on overall political organization. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by conducting interviews with community members and other knowledgeable individuals, making sure to include a broad cross-section of different types of community members. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project.
P2. Resource Tenure: What type of ownership or control do stakeholders have over the resource base? Do stakeholders have access to the resources? Are there any resource conflicts among the stakeholders as to who has tenure over and/or access to the resources? Are the tenure and/or access rights changing over time? Purpose: These questions are important to determine the extent to which project participants have control over the resources required by the core enterprise. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by conducting interviews with community members and other knowledgeable individuals, making sure to include a broad cross-section of different types of community members. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project.
P3. Policing Power: What control do stakeholders have to regulate natural resource collection and use by community members? What capacity do stakeholders have to regulate the use of resources by external stakeholders? Are the policing powers changing over time? Purpose: Policing power refers to the ability of the holders of the resource use rights to enforce their claims both internally (among community members) and externally (with outside individuals and groups). Knowledge of policing power is important, because tenure rights are only as good as their holder's ability to enforce them. Methods: Again, these questions could ideally be answered by conducting interviews with community members and other knowledgeable individuals, making sure to include a broad cross-section of different types of community members. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project. 3.3 Economic Context and Benefits
At a local level, the economic context involves determining both subsistence and cash-oriented activities for the residents of the project site. Important factors include determining what benefits and costs are created by the project and how these benefits are distributed.
EC1. Economic Context: What are the important economic (cash and non-cash) activities for various social groups within the project area? Is there seasonal variation in these activities? How are these activities changing over time? How dependent are community members on internal and external sub-groups for their income? What cash expenses do people in the community face? Purpose: These questions are needed to determine the economic baseline in the area so that it is possible to assess the impact of the project on the local economy. The last questions about dependency refer to whether community residents are indebted to money lenders, store owners, resource buyers/traders, "big people" in the community, or outside sources of employment for economic needs. Methods: Baseline economic data can ideally be collected through a combination of household surveys and discussions with knowledgeable individuals. Frequency: Baseline data should be collected at a minimum at the start and end of the project.
EC2. Magnitude of Benefits and Costs: What types of benefits and costs (direct and indirect) are communities and other players receiving from the BCN supported enterprise? From other project activities? How does the magnitude of these benefits compare to other economic activities in the project area from both a household and community-wide perspective? Purpose: These questions are related to Element 2 of the BCN Core Hypothesis which states that enterprises will contribute to conservation if they provide benefits for a community of stakeholders. These benefits can be financial (for example, money, shares of stock in an enterprise), social (improved tenure rights, maintenance of traditional beliefs), or environmental (watershed protection). Methods: Ideally, these questions could be best answered thorough the use of a benefit-cost analysis which involves a hypothetical comparison between two states of the world: one in which the project takes place and one in which the project does not take place. The analysis involves for each state, listing out all relevant costs and benefits to the various stakeholders in the project (for example, from the point of view of wealthy community members, poor community members, the implementing NGO, and the government). This analysis can be done either quantitatively or qualitatively. Quantitative analyses involve estimating all benefits and costs in terms of some specific currency (generally money, but it could be some other form such as bags of rice). These estimates are generally relatively easy to do for economic factors, but are often more difficult to make for social or environmental factors. Qualitative analyses involve estimating the relative benefits and costs of all factors. One common way is to use a series of pluses and minuses for each identified factor (with one plus or minus for a weak benefit or cost and two or three pluses or minuses for stronger ones).
Frequency: The initial benefit cost analysis should be conducted during the early stages of the project. This analysis could then be updated over the life of the project.
EC3. Distribution of Benefits: Who receives these benefits and bears these costs, both within and between households? Do community members and other actors perceive this distribution to be fair? How are conflicts resolved? Purpose: In addition to understanding the overall magnitude of benefits flowing into the community, it is also important to understand who is receiving these benefits and costs. Methods: The first question can ideally be answered by conducting the benefit cost analysis from the perspective of various sub-groups within the project site including men and women, rich and poor households, government agencies, NGOs, and the BCN. The second question can ideally be answered in surveys/PRAs conducted with community members. Frequency: While doing the benefit cost analysis described above.
EC4. Changes in Overall Welfare: How is overall community welfare changing over time? How is the welfare of project participants changing in comparison with community members not participating in the project? What are the causes of these changes? Purpose: These questions seek to examine what impact the project has on the welfare (general well-being) of the community members. Methods: Changes in overall community welfare can be measured by looking at quality of life indicators. These indicators will vary greatly from site to site and need to be determined in conjunction with local people. Examples could potentially include literacy, incidence and prevalence of disease, access to safe water, nutrition status, food consumption, and proxies for income (type of house construction or ownership of "status" possessions like cooking pots, radios, etc.). These indices can be measured through surveys and interviews. Frequency: At least at the start and end of the project. Enterprise monitoring involves looking at how the core enterprise(s) in each project are functioning. Much of the information should have been included in the original business plan. This monitoring work is thus a matter of filling in holes that may have been left out and updating the plan to reflect changes that are occurring over time. At its core, much of the enterprise monitoring involves obtaining information about the enterprise and its environment that can help managers minimize the level of risk they are facing.
4.1 Enterprise Overview and Structure
These questions are related to the overall business that the enterprise is engaging in.
EN1. Market Opportunities and Competition: What market is the enterprise entering or involved in? What gaps in this market is the enterprise filling? What are the market opportunities (quantity and price)? What are the constraints? Who are the primary competitors? Are they selling the same product or a close substitute? What advantages does the enterprise have over the competition? Does it seem like this advantage will be sustainable over the long term? Purpose: These questions are aimed at helping the enterprise to obtain information about the marketplace which will help the business determine what changes need to be made in production, distribution, and marketing processes. Methods: Questions about the marketplace could ideally be answered by interviewing and/or observing competitors. Frequency: At least on an annual basis, if not more frequently.
EN2. Enterprise Management/Participants: Who manages and participates in the enterprise? Do they have necessary skills to manage and operate the technology and the overall enterprise? What technical assistance is required to help obtain these skills?Who owns the enterprise? What form does this ownership take? Who makes management decisions? Who does the accounting for the enterprise? Purpose: These questions are intended to help project staff, the community, and the BCN to gain an understanding of how the business is owned and operated and who the stakeholders in the enterprise are. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by interviewing and observing a broad range of enterprise managers and workers. Frequency: At least on an annual basis. 4.2 Financial Status of the Enterprise
These questions concern the details of the enterprise's operations.
EN3. Cost/Revenue Structure: What are the variable and fixed costs involved in the production of the goods and/or services offered? What are the past, current, and anticipated future revenues from the enterprise? What profits or losses occur? Purpose: These questions seek to obtain a detailed understanding of what the costs and revenues for the business are. Variable costs include those costs that go into producing each unit of output such as materials, food, and wage labor. Fixed costs include those costs that have to be paid for, regardless of how many units are produced including for example, machinery, buildings, and management salaries. Revenues are what is obtained from selling the product. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by updating the cash flow and profit and loss (P & L) tables developed in the original business plan. Data for these tables could be obtained from the enterprise books, interviews with managers and workers in the enterprise, and observations. Frequency: Updates should be done at least on an annual basis.
EN4. Distribution of Profits/Allocation of Risk: Who receives profits from the enterprise? Who bears the risks in the enterprise? Purpose: This question seeks to understand who benefits from the enterprise and who bears the risk. Benefits (many of which may be covered in Question EC2 above) can include wages, dividends, and shares of stock. Risk includes financial investments in the enterprise as well as labor inputs. Methods: These questions can ideally be answered through interviews with enterprise participants. Frequency: Updates should be done at least on an annual basis. 4.3 Enterprise Successes and Constraints
These questions concern thinking about what has led to the success of the enterprise and what have been the major problems.
EN5. Successes and Constraints: What has the enterprise done right? What has worked? Have other enterprises been started based on this one? What are the constraints to growth of the enterprise? Lack of capital? Lack of raw materials? Lack of market access? Purpose: These questions seek to analyze what has worked and what has not worked. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered through discussions with enterprise participants. Frequency: Updates should be done at least on an annual basis. The preceding sections have focused on monitoring the core enterprise and its impacts on the surrounding biological, social, economic, and political environments. This section focuses instead on the evaluation of the success of the overall project. At its core, this evaluation involves seeing to what degree the project is achieving its stated goals and objectives. This evaluation can be conducted looking at whether the project is achieving conservation at the site (Success in Meeting Threats), whether the project is successfully involving and meeting the needs of the local communities (Success in Community Involvement), whether the project is doing successful monitoring (Success of Monitoring Program), and whether the project is successful in other objectives (Overall Project Results).
5.1 Success in Meeting Threats
The overall conservation questions listed in Section 2.2 are of the utmost importance to the BCN since they will ultimately be used to determine the "success" of projects. As discussed above, however, these questions are also some of the most difficult ones to answer in a 3-4 year time frame. Accordingly, another way of determining whether conservation is occurring is to examine what progress is being made in countering the specific threats to the biodiversity at any given site.
T1. Internal and External Threats: What are the major internal and external threats to the biodiversity of the project site? For each identified threat, what are the direct (proximate) and indirect (ultimate) causes? What is its effect on the biodiversity? How severe is this effect? Who is directly and indirectly responsible? Who benefits and who loses from the actions leading to the threat? In what ways? Are the threats changing over time?
Purpose: As outlined above, these questions are aimed at determining whether the projects are contributing to biodiversity conservation. Internal threats to the biodiversity of a site come from within the stakeholders in the project such as overharvesting of NTFPs or marine resources by community residents or expansion of agricultural plots. External threats to the biodiversity come from forces outside of the project such as corporate logging operations or immigration of settlers from other areas. Both internal and external threats can be further subdivided into direct threats which include activities that directly affect biodiversity or indirect threats which include factors indirectly contributing to biodiversity losses such as changes in national forestry policy or macroeconomic conditions. Methods: Many if not all projects will have already described the threats to the biodiversity in their original proposal. Threats could ideally be identified by discussing them with all stakeholders in the project including community members, government officials, and other individuals involved in the project site. For each identified threat, data should be obtained regarding the nature, scale, likelihood, and timing of the threat. Frequency: Threats should be identified at the start of the project and then updated at least every six months.
T2. Community Perception of Threats and Biodiversity: Are the threats perceived in the same way by all the stakeholders in the project area? How do perceptions change over time? How are attitudes towards the area's biodiversity changing over time? Purpose: Element 3 of the BCN Core Hypothesis postulates that enterprises will only contribute to conservation if the community members recognize the threats and then take steps to counter them. This question thus seeks to understand how the community members perceive the threats to the biodiversity. Methods: Community perceptions could ideally be understood by using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques to measure how various sub-groups within the community perceive the threats (see also Section 4.1 below). Frequency: Community perceptions should be surveyed at least on an annual basis.
T3. Actions to Counter Threats: What actions are being taken to counter the threat as a part of the project? Outside of the project? How successful are these actions over time? Purpose: Once the threats have been identified, it is also important to consider how they are being addressed. Methods: Specific methods that will be used depend on the threat and the action(s) being taken to counter it. In general, monitoring internal threats will involve seeing if the project is providing incentives and/or sanctions that would cause community members to change their behavior. Monitoring external threats will involve seeing if the project is enabling communities to defend the resources (see also Section 3.2 above). Frequency: Again, frequency will depend on the type and severity of the threat, but these data should be formally collected at least once a year. 5.2 Success in Achieving Community Involvement
Another major objective of the BCN program is to promote community involvement in the core enterprise and the overall project and to build local capacity.
C1. Community Participation: To what degree do community members participate in the core enterprise? In monitoring efforts? In the overall project? What factors allow for or prohibit their participation? Purpose: A major objective of the BCN program is to promote community involvement in the core enterprise and the overall project including especially monitoring. These questions seek to evaluate how well these objectives are being attained. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered through discussions with project staff and community members as well as observations. Frequency: At least on an annual basis.
C2. Community and Organizational Capacity: How is the project enhancing the capacity of local and regional organizations? Do the core enterprise and other project activities including monitoring have the potential to continue without the support of the BCN grant funds and collaborating organizations? Purpose: A second major objective of the BCN program is to help communities and organizations develop the capacity to carry on projects once BCN funding has ceased. These questions thus seek to evaluate how well these objectives were accomplished. Methods: Again, these questions could ideally be answered through discussions with project staff and community members as well as observations. Frequency: At least on an annual basis.
5.3 Success of Monitoring Program
A third major component of the BCN program involves determining what levels of monitoring are required for these types of projects to be successful.
M1. Results of Monitoring: What do the results of the biological, social, economic, political, and enterprise monitoring efforts imply regarding the project? How should future project activities be changed in light of these findings? Purpose: These questions seek to determine what the implications of the monitoring efforts are for potential changes in project activities. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by having project staff and community members responsible for monitoring discussing their findings with the rest of the project participants. Frequency: At least on an annual basis.
M2. Implementation of Monitoring: How well are the monitoring efforts working? What could be improved? Do project staff and community members feel that the information gained by monitoring is useful? Do they feel that it is worth the cost?
Purpose: These questions seek to determine what level of monitoring is useful for these types of projects. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by discussing the monitoring plans with the project staff and community members responsible for monitoring as well as with other community members. Frequency: At least on an annual basis. 5.4 Overall Project Evaluation
In addition to promoting biodiversity conservation by countering threats and enhancing community involvement in the project, the project may also have other goals and objectives by which its success can be evaluated. The success of the overall BCN project also needs to be evaluated.
EV1. Project Success: Is the overall project a success? Are the stated goals and objectives being met? What is working? What is not working? Do all project participants feel the same? What lessons are being learned that could improve this project or other similar projects in the future? Purpose: These questions seek to understand whether the overall project is successful in achieving stated goals and objectives. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered by assessing project results against stated goals and objectives. Answers could generally be obtained by interviewing project participants (including various sub-groups). Frequency: Goals and objectives should be clearly stated at the onset of the project and then updated as necessary (at least once a year). Assessments should be made while goals and objectives are being updated and then at the end of the project.
EV2. BCN Program Success: From a local perspective, is the overall BCN program working? What could BCN do to improve the project and the overall program? Purpose: These questions seek to understand how well the overall BCN program is working and what improvements could be made. Methods: These questions could ideally be answered through interviews with project participants. Frequency: At least on an annual basis and at the end of the project.
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