Strategic Planning for Species Conservation: A Handbook - IUCN

Strategic Planning for Species Conservation
Species Action Plans Publications written by IUCN/SSC Specialist Groups and other
organizations and groups (e.g., WWF, the European Union, and
others) that assess the conservation status of species and their
habitats and outline conservation priorities.
SSC Species Survival Commission (see http://cms.iucn.org/about/work/
programmes/species/index.cfm accessed 24 July 2008).
Stakeholder In the present context, an individual that demonstrates some
combination of concern (about the outcome of an SCS process),
expertise (i.e., has information or resources required to participate
in an SCS process), and/or power (i.e., is able to either block or
facilitate recommendations which result from the SCS process).
Taken together, a potentially valuable stakeholder can either
significantly affect the formulation of recommendations at the
workshop, and/or be significantly affected by them.
Target A measure applied to Goals or Objectives, as appropriate. Targets
should always be SMART (see above). The term target is
sometimes also used, in non-SCS contexts, to indicate the entity of
conservation concern (e.g., target species, ecosystems, or
ecological process). See also “Goal Target” and “Objective Target’.
In our usage, Targets are to measurable steps that describe what
needs to be accomplished to meet a Goal or Objective.
Threat A factor which causes either a substantial decline in the numbers of
individuals of that species, or a substantial contraction of the
species’ geographic range. Threats can be divided into proximate
and ultimate threats. Proximate threats are immediate causes of
population decline, usually acting on birth or death rates (e.g.,
habitat loss, over-harvest). Ultimate threats are root causes of
proximate threats, and are almost always anthropogenic (e.g.,
habitat loss (a proximate threat) might be driven by human
population growth (an ultimate threat)).
Vision An inspirational and relatively short statement that describes the
desired future state for the species (i.e., it describes in broad terms
the desired range and abundance for the species, its continuing
ecological role, and it relationship with humans). The Vision is an
essential part of the new SCS process in that those writing a SCS
should discuss explicitly what it means to save a species and use
the answer to this question to develop the associated Goals. The
Vision should, therefore, be derived from a range-wide analysis of a
species’ status and a detailed presentation of the long-term rangewide
conservation needs of the species (informed by the threat
analysis).
WPCA IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (see http://
cms.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/wcpa/index.cfm accessed
24 July 2008).
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