422 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
Across all institutional categories, understanding species trends and evaluation
were outlined as primary reasons for why monitoring is conducted (Fig. 34.1).
Monitoring of species trends (e.g. abundance, distribution and breeding) is
important for determining a species’ conservation status, and measuring responses
to interventions, disturbances, and/or recovery actions. Likewise, monitoring is
important for evaluating the effectiveness of management actions, conservation
outcomes and resource allocation. Other reasons for monitoring relate to agency
requirements, including: requirements stipulated by a funding agency; being able to
inform management decisions, actions and planning; and reporting on outcomes
relating to management actions. Additional reasons for monitoring are linked to
specific organisational objectives or obligations. Within management agencies,
monitoring is particularly focused on management outcomes and legislative
responsibility. Academic institutions and non-management agencies outlined
reasons that included community participation and improving knowledge.
Decisions on which species to monitor
Across all organisations, species are selected for monitoring based on a range of
criteria such as interest by individual practitioners, community or land owners (e.g.
Traditional Owners), available resources (e.g. skilled staff, funding), feasibility,
historical effort, existing partnerships, and political priorities or funding directives
(Fig. 34.2). Management agencies frequently select species to monitor based on
conservation status, agency priorities and links with management actions (e.g.
threat abatement actions, land use changes). Except for academic institutions,
selection is often guided by identified internal organisational priorities. External
priorities often inf luence species selection by academic institutions and non-
management agencies. Sometimes, there is no clear decision-making process or
criteria or, as one practitioner explained, selection of species can be due to
‘personal peccadillos’ of the practitioner.
Integration with management
All practitioners recognise the need to connect monitoring with management.
Consequently, most data resulting from monitoring programs are intended to
inform management (Fig. 34.3). However, the way data are used by managers and
the effectiveness of data-use varies among organisations. Monitoring data from all
organisations are used (or designed) to inform management decisions and
planning (e.g. ‘inform future development proposals’, ‘inform fire management’).
In addition, practitioners from management agencies often cited that data are used
to evaluate management actions (e.g. ‘to understand the effectiveness of an
implemented action’). Practitioner responses indicated that academic institutions,
proportionally more often than other institutional categories, provide species-
specific knowledge such as species–threat relationships and mechanisms. Across