Anna and Graham Cranney survey vegetation at Boolcoomatta Reserve, Adnyamathanha & Wilyakali Country, SA. By Kate Cranney

Measuring our impact

Published 25 Aug 2023

Bush Heritage uses the best knowledge available to deliver landscape-scale impact. Our team of scientists, field staff, data specialists, conservation planners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Managers work every day to manage our reserves.

We collaborate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other stakeholders to restore the bush to good health.

Across Bush Heritage-managed reserves we use our Conservation Management Process (CMP) to plan, manage, monitor, evaluate and adapt our conservation projects.

This process is informed by global best practices and draws heavily on the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (Conservation Standards). We use strategic indicators to consistently review and evaluate our progress. This sharpens our decision-making and helps us adapt our land management practices over time.

Biological monitoring at Nardoo Hills Reserve. By Will Sacre

We are an active member of the Conservation Measures Partnership, an international group of leading conservation organisations and philanthropic funders, who work together to evaluate and continually improve conservation work and outcomes across the globe. Closer to home, we are a member of the CCNet Australia Group where we’re able to share local knowledge and experiences. These efforts broaden our perspective and provide fresh inspiration for our work.

Once we acquire a reserve, we identify the main ‘targets’ and the ‘threats’ to the health of those targets to prioritise our land management strategies and ensure our supporters’ resources deliver the greatest possible impact.

“Good planning links where we are now to where we want to be. Our Conservation Management Process helps us clearly define the ‘now’, ‘where’, ‘what’ and ‘how’. This gives us the confidence we need to test our assumptions, implement targeted on-ground actions and research, and adapt our management.
- Clair Dougherty, Bush Heritage Conservation Planning Manager.

We measure progress at three levels:

Outputs (Strategy implementation)
Are we implementing the plan as expected?
Outcomes (Threats)
Are we implementing our strategies effectively and are threats reducing?
Impacts (Targets)
Is target health improving?

Truwana Rangers lead a cultural burn at Friendly Beaches Reserve, palawa Country, Tas. By Michael Bretz

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Creating change

Share
Document and share results with others (internally and externally).
Communicate the impact that has been achieved, the actions taken, and the lessons learned.

Analyse & Adapt
Assess the progress being made towards the desired impact, and whether or not we are on track.
Adapt the plan if necessary to make our work more effective.

Conservation Management Process

Assess
Define what ‘healthy Country’ looks like for a landscape.
Identify the species, habitats and cultural values that need to be managed and protected.
Identify threats to the health of the above.

Plan
Define the impact we want to have on target species, habitats and cultural values.
Identify the strategies and knowledge required to achieve this.
Confirm how we will monitor progress.

Implement
Identify the long-term resources required.
Prepare work plans and budgets, and implement on-ground activities in line with the plan.
Record data and report progress as activities are undertaken.

Protecting our targets

Targets are the ecological (vegetation communities, species and landscape features), social (access to Country, wellbeing) or cultural (sites, stories, species) features in our Priority Landscapes, reserves and partnerships that are the focus of management to keep Country healthy.

Since we commenced the management of land within our reserve network, we have maintained or improved the health of approximately 80 percent of our targets.

Some targets have declined in condition, largely due to the impacts of extreme weather events. Importantly, on reserves where evaluation reports have been completed in the past three years, there are no targets that remain in ‘Poor’ condition.

Key:
Baseline – The rating of the target after first assessment
Current – The rating of the target after recent assessment

Overall health of our targets

Baseline

Current rating

Very good

Good

Fair

Poor

Very good

Good

Fair

Poor

Change over time

Managing threats

Our people are on the ground, immersed in caring for the land and building its resilience. To improve the health of our targets, we work constantly to manage, reduce or eliminate threats such as feral animals, weeds and erosion.

The rating of a threat is determined using three criteria:

scope,
severity and
reversibility.

To date, we've made great progress with some of our threats, 85 percent have been reduced or remain unchanged.

In recent evaluations, 8.7 percent of threats have increased. This reflects our improved understanding of the potential, exacerbated impacts of climate change on identified threats across our reserves.

Key:
Baseline – The rating of the threat after first assessment
Current – The rating of the threat after recent assessment