Conservation Standards (CS) Adoption

We all want our organizations to be effective, and we all believe in the value of the Conservation Standards (CS) to improve conservation practices within our organizations. Anyone can play a key role in making change happen in our organizations - but it can be difficult to know where to start!

This initiative aims to provide support, guidance material, tools, and system improvements to key individuals aiming to improve conservation planning practices within their organization. The target audience is presumed to be already aware of ​the ​benefits​ that the CS can bring to ​the projects they are leading, ​but​ are now seeking support ​to spread its adoption to projects being led by others across ​their organization. We work to identify and develop the guidance required to help projects go full-cycle, and to integrate conservation project information with other core business processes.  Achieving these outcomes should help organizations to efficiently run quality conservation projects and achieve their impact. The products developed through this project are meant to support organizations anywhere in the CS adoption process, and key individuals that have only received basic CS training, as well as for experienced coaches. They were developed for organizations that are just starting the process of adopting the CS, for organizations that are mature (having standardized their planning processes and adopted systems to document their plans) all the way to organizations that are now consistently adapting their plans based on results, and where processes are well-integrated across organizational functions.

"Adoption" is used as a generic term for CS operationalization (putting the CS into use for specific projects and programs) and institutionalization (building of effective processes, consistent standards, infrastructure, and culture to support the CS as the way of doing business). The result is the deployment and implementation of processes that are effective, usable, and consistently applied across the organization. Institutionalization implies that the process is ingrained in the way the work is performed and there is commitment and consistency to performing the process.   

Leads: Annette Stewart (Bush Heritage Australia), Charles Latrémouille (Stratégies environnementales / ​Environmental strategies)

Initiative info

Operationalizing the Open Standards - Scope of Work - scope of work for the "Operationalizing the Open Standards" committee, including the vision and long-term work plan. 

Our Situation Analysis and Theory of Change - link to our project file on Miradi Share, outlining 2017 analysis that set up our scope of work and subsequent actions.

Committee Google Drive - Google Drive for documentation developed after the 2017 CMP Retreat (to be moved to this Google Site soon).

Supporting roles and responsibilities 

Operationalizing the Open Standards - A guide for using CMP’s systems - Miradi and Miradi Share - to support implementation and management of Open Standards projects.

Institutionalizing the Open Standards - A guide for fully exploiting the Open Standards to improve organizational performance and enable data-informed investment decision-making.

Conservation Business Process Model - Outlines a business process model illustrating how the Open Standards and supporting technology enable efficient processes, quality data management, and integration of systems, which are critical for an effective conservation organization.

Conservation Capability Maturity Model - A tool for assessing and improving performance of conservation organizations.

Summary Report to CMP - summarizes key findings from the study of practices, with reference to the specific guidance documents produced. 

Additional guidance documents on other topics are available in this Fulbright Toolkit.