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Why, what, how much, and is it

worth it? Questions to answer before

spending a penny on monitoring

Brendan A. Wintle

Summary

Monitoring is regularly described as crucial for managing threatened species
because it enables managers to understand the benefits of management options and
determine how urgently they must be instituted to avoid extinction. However,
useful monitoring does not come free, and money spent on monitoring one species
is money that could have been spent on monitoring or managing another species.
Because budgets for saving species are highly contested, monitoring must be
carefully justified and planned. This chapter synthesises some ideas, approaches
and quantitative tools that may help threatened species program managers decide
whether they should establish a monitoring program for a species, ecosystem or
threat and, if so, justify how much they should spend on monitoring to ensure it
delivers on clearly stated, and measurable, aims in a cost-effective way. It starts by
reviewing the reasons to monitor and provides some examples of well-justified