Assessing Threats in Conservation Planning and Management

This module reviews the role of assessing threats in setting conservation targets, identifying priority strategies, and determining their effectiveness. It includes an overview of the use of threat assessment in conservation planning by focusing on species-level and global-, regional- and local (site)-level priority setting. The synthesis also reviews two planning tools used in site conservation—conceptual models and The Nature Conservancy's 5 "S" approach. The second part of the synthesis reviews the role of threat assessment in measuring management effectiveness with reference to monitoring approaches that fall into two broad categories: (1) the assessment of the status and impacts of threats, and (2) the measurement of ecological integrity of conservation targets. This section concludes with a comparison of threat monitoring methodologies focusing on two approaches: Threat Reduction Assessment and Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Area Management.