The Project - Where, Who & Why?
The Project - Where, Who & Why?
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Where
CAP is place-based conservation planning. Conservation projects occur at many scales. The “place” may be any size, from a nature reserve to an entire state or region, but most CAPs are developed for large landscapes.
Often the project area for the CAP seems pre-determined or self-evident, such as a watershed or an agency’s conservation area boundary. But sometimes the project area is more complex, or may change based upon the conservation targets selected or the threats determined in the subsequent CAP steps. CAP is an “iterative, adaptive process,” or in everyday English, “two steps forward, one step back.” You may want to come back and revisit your project area after you’ve done other steps.
Who
The CAP project team should include key people and institutions who will be responsible for ensuring the action plan goes forward, as well as people who understand the resources, potential threats, and strategies.
Why
The inherent purpose of a CAP is to conserve the focal resources of a geographic area - that is, to maintain or restore the resources' health and to abate any critical threats. However, some project teams also like to include a vision statement for their project. This is an optional step. If desired, it can be completed at the beginning of the CAP to help provide a sense of scope, purpose or aspiration. Alternatively, the vision for a project can emerge organically from the selection of targets and strategies.
Chena River WRAP - Watershed Resource Action Plan
- Managed Area or Larger Landscape? A frequent issue for agencies developing a CAP is whether the project geography should be their existing “managed area” or a larger landscape. The larger landscape may include the areal extent of some ecosystem or species targets that go beyond the immediate area and need to be managed as a larger system. turboCAP’s advice is to plan at the scale needed to conserve the key resources.
- “Threat-shed”? Very often threats need to be addressed that extend beyond the boundaries of a conservation area. For example, there may be a source of stress to marine resources that occurs on land far upstream, or acid precipitation affecting a forest may be occurring from a source far upwind. turboCAP’s advice is to have a “solid line” Project Area for the area that includes the focal conservation targets, but also to recognize a larger “dotted line” area that encompasses the geography of the critical threats.
- How many people on a CAP Team? CAP project teams have ranged from as few as three people to as many as dozens. There are obvious tradeoffs in size. A smaller team can move through the CAP process more efficiently, whereas a very large team can include a diversity of key stakeholders, but probably needs professional facilitation. The ideal team size for turboCAP is 5 to 8 participants – this typically provides a diversity of knowledge and perspectives, but is small enough to move through the process at a reasonable pace.
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