Strategic Planning for Species Conservation: A Handbook - IUCN

3. When should a Species Conservation Strategy
be developed?
This chapter considers when new SCSs should be prepared. It discusses when singlespecies
strategies are appropriate, and when multi-species strategies would be preferable.
We argue that the SCS process may be applied to any level within the taxonomic hierarchy
of species and species groups, and at any spatial scale. We also briefly address the need
for resources and provide an example of one IUCN/SSC Specialist Group’s fund raising
strategy.
3.1 Getting started
Species-focused strategies are appropriate when the relevant IUCN/SSC Specialist Group
or other authority for a species or a group of species deems coordinated conservation
attention necessary. The need for coordination may arise because the geographic range of
the species or species group straddles political boundaries or multiple ecological zones and
so requires different political entities and groups of scientists, conservationists, managers,
and policy-makers to act in concert, or it may arise because the level of threat is
endangering the viability of key populations, their ecological functions, and/or their habitat.
Before embarking on the preparation of a new SCS, it is important to be aware that the
process requires substantial effort, and that time, funds and personnel have to be available
to develop the SCS. In addition, dedicated staff and resources will often be needed to
implement the resulting SCSs.
One of the first steps required for strategic planning, therefore, will usually be to raise funds
to support the process. Fundraising can, however, coincide with the equally necessary step
of identifying and gaining the support of key stakeholders (see Chapter 4), as both
governments and NGOs are more likely to support a process both financially and with their
participation if they expect that it will meet their needs. Box 3.1 provides an example of the
fund-raising strategy used by one of the Specialist Groups, the Tapir Specialist Group, to
support their planning workshops. A well-developed and broadly endorsed SCS can be a
great help in raising the funds and obtaining the agency and institutional commitments
needed to implement the recommended Actions.
Apart from resources, developing an effective SCS ideally requires a great deal of data
(e.g., on distribution, trends, and threats), and consequently a serious lack of information
might be a reason to postpone development of a full conservation strategy. However, a
lack of data should never be a reason to suspend all activity for a species. If vital data are
lacking, it might be appropriate to develop a plan to research, survey, assess, and monitor
the species, with the aim of collecting sufficient data to undertake the development of a
more complete conservation strategy at a later date. In almost all cases, however, some
important data will be missing, and part of each SCS will need to address further data
collection needs. Often, the SCS process itself will lead to the recognition that more data
are required to fully understand the threats to the species, or the best ways to mitigate
those threats. Understanding such issues is key to ensuring that the recommended Actions
will be adequate to save the species.
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