Monitoring High Conservation Values

The purpose of monitoring is to make sure that any changes in the identified HCVs are noticed. This then allows action to be taken if the change is negative, which in turn means that the requirement to maintain or enhance the value can be met. Monitoring HCVs is not an excuse to carry out research! If monitoring does not provide useful information to land managers, it is a waste of time.

In addition to monitoring that each HCV is being maintained or enhanced, it is also advisable to monitor that the proposed management measures are actually being carried out as planned. This is often called ‘operational’ monitoring. For example, in HCVF it is common to monitor that logging operations are following required procedures. This helps to identify any obvious problems before they may actually be detected from by a longer-term (or ‘strategic’) monitoring programme.

What needs to be monitored?

For monitoring to be effective, it has to be directly linked to the management objectives of the land manager. The HCV process is helpful in this respect, because the manager is given a framework to identify the value and the actions necessary to maintain it. The objectives of monitoring can be defined from these, and because HCVs are different, management is usually specific to each value. This means the maintenance of each value will need to be monitored in a different way. At least one, and usually more than one indicator will be needed for each identified HCV.  

Anything measurable can in theory be an indicator. For example:

            • Wildlife populations, such as the number of migratory bird species using a lake each year.

            • Social issues, such as the income local people derive from collecting non-timber forest products.

            • Other environmental factors including water quality, soil erosion or measures of forest regeneration

A good indicator should have the following qualities:  

Measurable: if indicators are quantitative (e.g. the number of sleeping nests built by Orang Utans along a given transect) it is easier to check for changes on a regular basis. It may be necessary to use descriptive or qualitative indicators (for example, peoples’ perceptions of the impact of operations on their sacred sites), in which case it is important to plan in advance how changes will be identified.

Straightforward: indicators should be as simple to understand and to measure as possible, since this minimises the risk of mistakes being made. This is not always possible but wherever there is a choice of indicators always choose the more straightforward ones.

Cost-effective: The cheaper the indicator in terms of both direct costs (e.g. paying specialists, buying information such as satellite images) and indirect costs (e.g. staff time, use of vehicles), the more likely it is that the monitoring will be implemented in the long term, and maintained during difficult times. 

Time-sensitive: Firstly, the quicker and easier it is to collect the information needed for an indicator, the more likely it is that the work will be done. Secondly, it is important to decide how often the indicators need to be measured right from the start and make sure that there are adequate resources available.

Appropriate:  It is critically important to be sure that the indicator is appropriate and effective in measuring the HCV. Often, in an effort to keep indicators quantitative, straightforward, cheap and easy, people measure things which do not provide useful data on whether or not the value is being maintained.

Monitoring should be appropriate to the scale and intensity of management. It is useful to think of monitoring in two ways: periodic simple checks that can be carried out by operational staff (i.e. operational monitoring) and longer term specific investigations that may need specialist skills (i.e. strategic monitoring). For example:

 A few isolated patches of a forest type occur scattered through the forest area (HCV 3). No logging activity is planned in these areas and they are demarcated as conservation zones. Protection from fire is essential, and a small buffer zone has been established around each area where only 1 tree per hectare will be cut in order to maintain canopy cover and reduce disturbance that may give rise to drying.

Periodic operational monitoring will focus on ensuring management is carried out by:

·          Checking delineation of conservation zones and buffer areas

·          Checking implementation of reduced harvesting

·          Checking no illegal timber cutting is taking place within the conservation zone

Strategic monitoring, at longer intervals, will investigate if the forest habitat is being maintained:

·          Measuring tree diameter distribution,

·          Measuring regeneration

·          Confirming the presence of certain indicator plants

How will the monitoring be carried out?

Once the indicators have been chosen, the next step is to develop a monitoring programme incorporating the indicators. 

How each indicator will be measured: The methods that you use for monitoring should be consistent, because different monitoring methods can give different results, and changes to the monitoring programme can lead to apparent changes where none are actually present.

How to decide when a change has occurred: The first few measurements should provide a baseline of the level of the indicator. A decision must be made about exactly what size or type of change is significant i.e. a threshold for real impact on the value. This can be positive (e.g. where restoration activities might be stepped down once indicators of high value species have reached a satisfactory level), or negative (e.g. a threshold sediment load in a river meaning that erosion control must be carried out upstream to maintain water quality in the long term)

Who is responsible for making the measurements: there should be clear responsibility for planning monitoring activities, for training the individuals who are taking measurements in the field, for making sure that they are conducted and for making sure that the results are analysed.

How often the measurements will be made: This is a key decision, which  needs to be based on:

            - The speed with which change might occur to the indicator. For example, bird nests might need to be be counted annually, in the breeding season, whilst the sediment load of a river might need to be measured during each big storm.

            - FSC Criterion 9.4 specifies that monitoring must be annual. However, this is not necessarily appropriate to all HCVs. Therefore, ‘Monitoring should take place with a frequency relevant to assess the effectiveness of the measures employed to maintain or enhance the HCVs, and this should be reviewed at least annually’.

How the monitoring data will be analysed: in order assess the effectiveness of the management programme, the data must be analysed and converted into useful information. Therefore, you should plan in advance how the data will be analysed, who is responsible for doing it, and how quickly it will be done after data collection.

How should the results be used?

 As soon as the data have been analysed, the results need to be reviewed to see what the indicator is telling you. This needs to be set up as a formal programme with regular dates set for carrying out these reviews.

For each indicator the review should check:

            • Are the planned measurements being made and the results analysed?

            • Do the results indicate any change to the HCV?

            • What are the implications for management?

If the results indicate a negative change to the HCV then immediate action must be taken since it indicates that a value identified as outstandingly important is being damaged. The causes of this should be determined, taking into account:

            • the effect of individual management actions;

            • the potential of several cumulative impacts that may cause degradation of the HCVs;

            • the extent to which natural disturbance events may be responsible for the degradation of the HCVs;

            • the extent to which events occurring outside the forest management unit may cause degradation of HCVs.

To ensure monitoring is useful it must be linked to an adaptive management process. This means the results of monitoring must be analysed and available in real time to the management.

More on biological monitoring: Monitoreo ecológico del manejo forestal en el trópico húmedo (in Spanish only)