Description: This presentations are a “harmonized” set of presentations for Steps 1 and 2 of the Open Standards developed by staff from Foundations of Success, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF. They have been vetted overall as excellent, but generally still need learning objectives made more explicit, and with more comprehensive notes to guide presenters. The treatment of human wellbeing targets and climate change needs attention, as these are not always covered. Citation: Conservation Coaches Network (2012) Harmonized Open Standards Presentations.

This is a very good example of a plan developed to provide a framework for conservation of a species with a broad geographic range. The Reddish Egret is found along the coasts of the United States, Mexico and several countries in the Caribbean and Central America. The plan has inspired greater international collaboration for the species and the development of a more detailed plan for Mexico. Parts of the plan that could be strengthened include the viability assessment (which is purely descriptive) and the monitoring plan.  

This is an excellent example of a large, multi country strategic plan in the Central Asian landscape, very effectively using the Open Standards. Altai-Sayan ecoregion in Central Asia is a vast wild region covering the region where Mongolia, Russia, China, and Kazakhstan converge, comprising mountain, steppe, and forest habitats of snow leopards, argali sheep, and ibex. WWF, led by its Mongolia and Russian offices, developed the plan in 2012 for its ecoregional efforts in the four countries. Given four different management regimes and conservation situations, the plan does a good job of presenting complicated viability and threat ratings, and does…

This plan set up the framework for a subsequent Management Plan for the then recently proclaimed Axios Delta National Park, the marine outfall of four rivers near Thessaloniki in Greece. Led by Ike Tilders (Foundations of Success), the plan was developed using Steps 1 and 2 of the Open Standards. As such, it was left to the subsequent Management Plan to define the operational detail of how to implement the plan.

Penned in 2011, the Painted Dog Conservation Strategic Plan uses the Open Standards to achieve species conservation in almost flawless detail. The document steps through targets, viability, threats and situation analysis to set the plan up. Goals and indicators are defined, then results chain developed for each of the chosen strategies, followed by a operations plan and monitoring plan. Although quite a ‘dry’ document, it is an excellent example of the power of the Open Standards. Subsequently, the organisation has carried out much of the work, which can be viewed on their website. This work is proving successful, with the…

This report is a good example of how a national agency used results chains to develop common theories of change, objectives and indicators in order to assess effectiveness at varying scales and to conduct program-level adaptive management. It also provides questionnaires to collect data related to these generic indicators and recommends that all projects adopt these indicators. The results chains in this plan received intensive peer review and were incorporated into the Conservation Actions and Measures Library (CAML). Citation: AFWA 2010 Measuring the Effectiveness of State Wildlife Grant Projects: Phase I Report. Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies’ Teaming With Wildlife…

Healthy Country Planning is an adaptation of the Open Standards developed for use in participative and cross-cultural situations – typically with Indigenous communities. To better enable this, the language of the OS has been translated into simpler terms, a colour coding system adopted and a flow chart of how all the steps fit together added for clarity. It has been developed and tested across Australia, and the most experienced coaches in its use are Australian, but it has been used very successfully in the Americas and Asia. It is suggested that only experienced coaches use HCP as it does require adaptation…