Monitoring data is only useful if you use it. There are two ways to use monitoring data: 1) to change how someone sees the world; or 2) to influence a decision. You can accomplish the first by analyzing and sharing the monitoring data. You can accomplish the second by helping decision-makers use monitoring data in planning how to use, conserve and manage resources.
The first group to share the monitoring data with is the project team. Analyze the data to determine where you are having an impact, what kind of impact you are having, where you need to have more of an impact, and whether you need to adjust what you are doing to achieve your desired goal. Beyond the team, there are many ways to share monitoring data that can influence how people use natural resources. Environmental protection agencies in many countries have found that simply publishing a list of environmental violators can greatly reduce the number of violations; most people and organizations do not want to be on a public list of violators, and many will change their behavior to stay off such a list. Monitoring data can also be used in environmental awareness and education campaigns; generally it is most useful to explain the implications of the data as well as share the data itself.
One of the most valuable uses of monitoring data is to help decision makers modify decisions or adjust plans. Monitoring data can shift how planners understand the state of the world, the value of natural resources, the impact of actions, or the ramifications of choices. The best way to use monitoring data in this way is to explicitly integrate it into the planning and decision-making processes. You can help your partners adopt planning processes that require planners to annually (at the least) consider the implications of the monitoring data and adjust plans to reflect the improved understanding.
This annual exercise to analyze the monitoring data and adjust the project strategy brings us back to the beginning of the planning process. The monitoring data provides a new understanding of the condition of the part of the world you seek to influence. Establish an annual process to determine if the objectives and activities are still the best strategy to achieve the goal, given the implications of the monitoring data. Use the monitoring data to review last year's assumptions about where you are, where you want to be, and how to best move from here to there. Since the conditions in which your project is operating have changed, it is likely that you will need to adjust some of your tasks and activities, and perhaps even objectives. Occasionally you may need to adjust your goals. Use the monitoring data to help you adapt to changing conditions, to articulate what you have learned, and to share your lessons. Begin again with Stage 1 above.
To learn more about how to analyze data and adjust your project over time, we recommend the following resources.
Would you like your organization to become a learning organization?
Measures of Success: Designing, Measuring and Monitoring Conservation and Development Projects
By Richard Margoluis and Nick Salafsky, 1998, Island Press
This is a practical, hands-on guide to designing, managing, and measuring the impacts of community-oriented conservation and development projects. It presents a simple, clear, logical, and yet comprehensive approach to developing and implementing effective programs, and can help conservation and development practitioners use principles of adaptive management to test assumptions about their projects and learn from the results.
English (382 pages, ISBN 1-55963-612-2, available from Island Press)
Español (386 páginas, PDF, 7.51 MB)
Greater than the Sum of Their Parts: Designing Conservation and Development Programs to Maximize Results and Learning
By Nick Salafsky and Richard Margoluis, 1999, Biodiversity Support Program
A practical guide aimed at helping conservation and development program managers and donors reflect on how the principles of adaptive management can maximize results and learning.
English (29 pages, PDF, 3,428 KB)
Español (29 páginas, PDF, 650 KB)
Measuring Conservation Impact: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Project Monitoring and Evaluation
Edited by K. Saterson, Richard Margoluis, and Nick Salafsky, 1999, Biodiversity Support Program (BSP)
This Biodiversity Support Program symposium proceeding includes a set of eight papers that provide excellent examples of putting the theory of adaptive management into action, whereby project managers identify, collect, analyze, and use relevant data to test assumptions, adapt, and learn.
English (122 pages, PDF, 14.7 MB)
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