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What is site conservation
planning? Download
the full SCP Manual (PDF) »
Site conservation planning is
a process that identifies the most important strategic actions
needed to achieve specified conservation goals and defines the
land area where the strategic actions are implemented. The process
integrates more traditional preserve design and land acquisition
activities with newer conservation biology and ecosystem management
concepts into a single dynamic framework. Site conservation planning
is used by organizations across the country to guide their protection
and stewardship activities.
The importance of site conservation
planning
As land trusts continue to grow and become more sophisticated in their land protection strategies, it becomes increasingly important for the allocation of their limited resources to be put to their most effective use.  As such, a system of strategic and proactive land protection should begin to take precedence over reactive conservation practices. Site conservation planning is an important tool to guide protection and stewardship activities for valuable conservation sites. It has been a successful instrument for conservation organizations because it.
1. Focuses conservation work
2. Maximizes successes
3. Provides an explicit process
4. Builds funding capacity
5. Builds and strengthens partnerships
The framework of site conservation planning
The most appropriate and effective format of a site conservation plan is one that works best for you and your partners and conveys your priorities to your particular audience. However, you should keep in mind that the recommended length for a plan is no more that 15 pages, which can be difficult to do. Succinctness and efficiency in your writing to convey main points will make the document much more user-friendly. The use of tables, maps, and figures is also encouraged.
When site conservation planning was developed by The Nature Conservancy, they based the framework on the Five-S approach. The Five-S framework represents a set of guiding principles for making strategic conservation decisions and measuring conservation successes at sites. The five S’s include:
• Systems: the conservation targets, species and communities, occurring at a site, and the natural processes that maintain them, that will be the focus of site-based planning.
• Stresses: the types of degradation and impairment afflicting the species and system(s) at a site.
• Sources: the agents generating the stresses.
• Strategies: the types of conservation activities employed to abate sources of stress and persistent stresses.
• Success: measures of biodiversity health and threat abatement at a site.
The application of the Five-S Framework throughout the site
conservation planning process is an effective way to strategically look at what is threatening your conservation targets and plan to mitigate those threats.
Learn
about the
site conservation planning process »
Please contact Pam Foster Felt at
pam [at] gatheringwaters.org or
608-251-9131 x12 with any questions about site conservation planning.
The Site Conservation
Planning Manual for Wisconsin’s Land Trust Community was created for Gathering
Waters Conservancy in 2006 by Sara
DeKok, Master’s Candidate
at the University of Wisconsin – Madison
Gaylord Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, and Gathering
Waters' Member Relations Director.
Photo provided
courtesy of Gill Gribb
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