Learning to be More Effective

Evaluation, as a formal field of research and practice, is uncommon in the Nature conservation community. Evaluation of conservation initiatives is in its infancy despite the discipline of evaluation being established formally since the 1940s. When they are evaluated, conservation initiatives do not commonly draw on established evaluation theory and practice but instead attempt to develop evaluation approaches from scratch. The result has typically been evaluations are more poorly designed and implemented than if existing evaluation knowledge and experience had been applied.

Systems thinking, inclusive of systems-based disciplines and approaches such as complexity and network science, soft systems and dynamic systems, and the arts and humanities, offers a novel approach to understanding the functions and interactions of social-ecological systems relevant to conservation planning and management. More specifically, systems thinking has the potential to augment efforts to address several fundamental issues that challenge our collective ability to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation planning and management activities. Exploring the potential feasibility, benefits and costs of founding conservation planning within a systems thinking framework has been suggested as one way to improve the relevance, utility and effectiveness of conservation planning.

The theory and application of systems thinking lies at the cutting edge of evaluation practice and research. Evaluators have recently begun exploring the potential relevance and application of systems thinking for improving the discipline’s capacity to understand and affect desired change in multiple and interdependent systems, such as, in this particular case, the integrated social, economic and ecological systems typically the context for Nature conservation initiatives.