Work on all of our reserves and the land of partners who invite our participation is planned using an internationally recognised planning methodology – the Open Standard for the Practice of Conservation.
The Open Standards provides a thorough, disciplined process through which to build an understanding of the project within its ecological, social, political and cultural context. Through the process we identify the species, ecosystems and cultural elements we're working to protect, the likely threats and how those threats are to be managed.
A key element of the process is building a project logic – the result we expect from each activity, the pathway to get there and what we need to measure to know if we're on the right path to success.
Through this process, we track our progress and re-examine our strategies if we're not getting the results we expect. Through this process we also identify the gaps in our knowledge and what research is needed to fill those gaps. Our science team is critical to planning, implementing and monitoring our on-ground activities and developing the research projects that will meet our knowledge needs.