Measuring Success: A Survey of Large Landscape Conservation Programs’ Monitoring and Evaluation Practices

Monitoring and evaluation is an integral part of managing and conserving natural resources. Nevertheless, while conservation practitioners clearly recognize the importance of determining whether conservation actions are having their intended impacts, recent surveys have reported inconsistent application of monitoring and evaluation practices within large landscape conservation (LLC) programs.   To gain a clearer sense these practices, we conducted a national survey to ascertain the purpose and subjects of LLC monitoring efforts, who participates, the kinds of challenges they face in conducting monitoring and evaluation, and their views on what constitutes successful monitoring and evaluation.  Study participants were also asked to share monitoring “success stories” from their experiences.  This session will offer a summary report of the results of this nationwide survey of practitioners.