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MONITORING
REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Multiparty
Monitoring and Assessment Guidelines for Community
Based Forest Restoration in Southwestern Ponderosa
Pine Forests
In Spring 2002, six organizations joined forces
to address the lack of useful information on monitoring
projects specific to ponderosa pine forest restoration
projects. The six sponsoring organizations, including
the National Forest Foundation, the USDA Forest
Service - Collaborative Forest Restoration Program,
the Ecological Restoration Institute, the Four
Corners Institute, the Pinchot Institute for Conservation
and the Forest Trust, led the process necessary
to generate a framework and guidelines on how
a diverse collection of groups can monitor and
assess the success of forest restoration projects.
The framework and guidelines are intended to provide
useful information at the project level and facilitate
regional interpretation for other multiparty monitoring
efforts.
The manual produced by the collaborative group,
and available for download here, contains an introduction
and overview, information on the multiparty monitoring
process, and socioeconomic and ecological monitoring
goals, indicators, and measures that groups can
use for their monitoring project. In addition,
specific data sources and monitoring methods are
also included.
Why monitor forest restoration projects? Resource
management often follows an “adaptive management”
approach, which is designed to allow frequent
review and feedback on progress toward project
goals while the project is being implemented.
This feedback allows project managers to take
corrective action when faced with changing ecological,
economic, or social conditions. Feedback is particularly
important to ecosystem restoration projects to
help forest managers, scientists, and practitioners
learn more about how restoration treatments change
the forest and modify the treatments to better
meet project goals. Effective monitoring is an
essential element of adaptive management, because
it provides reliable feedback on the effects of
project actions.
Why multiparty monitoring? A multiparty process
is one that involves a diverse group of individuals
from community-based groups; local, regional,
and national interest groups; and public agencies
in an effort to be responsive to multiple interests
and objectives. In many ways, multiparty monitoring
reflects a national trend toward broader participation
in environmental policy and management, especially
on public lands.
The multiparty approach is designed to promote
mutual learning, as participants work together
to better understand project efforts and impacts.
Participants can expect to gain a greater understanding
of ecological health, the local community’s
economic and social well-being, and the interconnections
between the environment, the economy, and social
conditions. They will also learn more about others’
perspectives on the project and its potential
outcomes.
All monitoring efforts are faced with the challenge
of choosing the types of change that they will
monitor. This guidebook includes dozens of sample
indicators. Monitoring groups will be faced with
limitations of time and money, and they will have
to carefully consider which indicators will provide
them with the most useful information.
The following .pdf file is the draft monitoring
manual, developed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by
these six organizations. It provides ideas and
guidance for undertaking multiparty monitoring
projects in Southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems.
The NFF played a leadership role in this project
because we believe that community engagement will
build a deeper understanding of forest stewardship
projects.
We invite you to download
this report (478K PDF) and learn more about
how to develop your own monitoring project, as
well as the NFF’s role in science-based
conservation and community-based
forestry. If you use this document and have
suggestions for changes, please contact mmitsos@natlforests.org.
We hope you find the information useful. |
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