Frank Weisenberger Consulting applies the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (Conservation Standards) and its adaptation Healthy Country Planning. The Conservation Standards and Healthy Country Planning draw on the collective experience of adaptive managers and robust strategic planning approaches from various industries. Through participatory planning processes adaptive management plans are developed with local communities and stakeholders.

The Conservation Standards help projects be systematic about planning, implementing, and monitoring their cultural and natural resource management initiatives. This systematic approach allows project teams to learn what works, what does not work, and why — and ultimately adapt and improve conservation strategies. The Conservation Standards combine principles and best-practices in adaptive- and results-based management and bring common approaches together with a common terminology. The Conservation Standards are used by local and national governments and Non-Governmental Organisations around the world.

An adaptation of the Conservation Standards, Healthy Country Planning is a participatory planning process that develops adaptive management plans with local communities. Healthy Country Planning provides the approach and set of tools to bring community knowledge and western science together. Healthy Country Planning recognises that a plan is more likely successful when the people implementing the plan are empowered by participating in the planning process and believe in the plan. Healthy Country Planning uses language, facilitation techniques and tools that are tailored to community needs and focus on engagement, participation and empowerment.

The Healthy Country Planning process leads project teams through a five-step adaptive management cycle (please refer to figure 1) to identify and prioritise effective conservation strategies. Depending on existing work by a community, the process can be joined at any stage.

Healthy Country Planning and the Conservation Standards integrate measures and indicators from the outset of the planning process to ensure objective, consistent and transparent accounting of intended and actual conservation outcomes in the adaptive management process.

Tools

• The Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation are supported by the Miradi planning software. Miradi allows planners and practitioners to design, manage, monitor and adapt their conservation projects and export work and monitoring plans.

• Miradi Share is a cloud-based platform that improves remote collaboration with multiple parties on OS projects in the Miradi format.

• Applied methods for data collection in the field (Cybertracker / Fulcrum)

• Training in Geographic Information Systems (QGIS / ArcGIS) to support decision making.

• Participatory planning tools to facilitate strategic planning processes.

For more information on software solutions, please visit the Resources page.