Evaluating Effectiveness: A Framework for Assessing the Management of Protected Areas

This publication proposes a framework for assessing management effectiveness, recognising the need for a variety of responses depending on needs and resources. It aims to help all those who wish to assess protected areas, both in suggesting what needs to be done and in providing some guidelines. It includes six practical case studies from Australia, the Congo Basin, Central America, South America and the USA.

Table of Contents:
Preface vii Acknowledgements ix PART A - The framework and guidelines 1 1. An introduction to "management effectiveness" 3 1.1 What is management effectiveness? 3 1.2 Why is the evaluation of protected area management important? 4 1.3 Who is interested in management effectiveness and what do they want to know? 6 1.4 Recent trends in monitoring protected area management effectiveness 7 2. A framework for evaluating management effectiveness 11 2.1 The management cycle and evaluation 11 2.2 Evaluating management effectiveness using the WCPA framework 14 2.3 Process guidelines for evaluating management effectiveness of protected areas 15 3. Applying the framework - a toolkit 17 3.1 What type of evaluation is needed? 17 3.2 How should the assessment be reported and presented? 23 3.3 What indicators are needed? 24 3.4 Developing an evaluation system 25 4. Detailed description of the indicators 29 4.1 Element 1: Context: Where are we now? 29 4.2 Element 2: Planning: Where do we want to be? 32 4.3 Element 3: Input: What do we need? 34 4.4 Element 4: Process: How do we go about it? 37 4.5 Element 5: Output: What were the results? 39 4.6 Element 6: Outcome: What did we achieve? 41 5. Applying the framework at various scales 45 5.1 Site level evaluations 45 5.2 Agency/national evaluations 45 5.3 National and international levels 46 5.4 A global system for recording effectiveness data 46 5.5 Who should be involved? 47 6. Conclusions 49 Appendices 51 Appendix 1 53 Appendix 2 61 PART B - Case studies 69 1 Experience in outcomes-based evaluation of management for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Australia 71 2 Development and application of the WWF/CATIE methodology 81 3 Management effectiveness of the Dja Reserve, Cameroon 87 4 Management effectiveness evaluation of protected areas in Brazil 93 5 Monitoring management of protected areas: A regional initiative for Central America (PROARCA/CAPAS) 99 6 Rapid assessment and prioritisation methodology 105 References 115 Glossary 119 Abbreviations 121