Approaches to Conservation Management

We need to employ a wide variety of different approaches to managing wildlife. No single management solution can suit all circumstances. In broad terms, nature conservation planning and management can be divided into three, possibly four, main approaches:

Management planning by prescription is when a plan prescribes or describes management actions, and although particular outcomes are required these are not specified. Management by prescription is rarely a valid approach, although it may occasionally be an inadequate but necessary compromise. But, even in these circumstances, there is a great deal to be gained from making some attempt to describe the intended outcome.

Management by defining conservation outcomes was developed in recognition of the legal requirement to protect specified features on statutory, and other, sites. In outline, this approach is based on identifying the most important features on a site. The desired outcome for each feature is defined, and these are the management objectives. Although a features approach is imperfect, it is the most appropriate approach for many sites. Currently, there are no alternatives for sites where the features have legal status and were the basis for site selection. It is always applicable in situations where the features are plagioclimatic plant communities or populations of a species.

Wilderness management usually implies an acceptance that natural processes will maintain a wilderness ecosystem providing anthropogenic threats or factors are removed or kept under control. There is an immediate issue with defining what is meant by control, but the real problem lies in the idea that ‘natural’ excludes humanity. Regardless of how we choose to define wilderness, with or without people, and given that the only thing that we can be sure of is that these places will change, how will we know that the changes that we observe are acceptable? Will we ever be able to differentiate between changes that are a consequence of anthropogenic or natural factors?

The purpose of experimental management is to test ideas and practices, and the outcomes will not necessarily be of benefit to wildlife. There are very few examples of habitat-scale experiments. We know that, if we are to progress and become more effective and efficient at conserving wildlife, we need large-scale experimental management, and we need to explore new ideas and directions.

Keywords experimental management, management by defining conservation outcomes, management planning by prescription, wilderness management