Most politicians have jumped on the conservation bandwagon, and nobody running for public office these days can afford to take an overtly anti environment stand. The fascination that children have for nature, the gen erous donations people make to conservation organizations, the votes cast for 'Green Parties,' the continuing popularity of zoos and wildlife films, and the strong sales of books about the environment all provide evidence to politicians that the general public supports the idea of conservation. Conservation has become a major issue for governments. No longer is it necessary for conservationists to campaign for getting the cause on the agenda: it is already there, at least as a talking point. The issue now is how to convert this generalized interest into real action. And among the many priorities competing for attention, how is a govern ment (or a private organization) to decide wh at to do first? From a very limited budget - for budgets will always be limited - what is the package of activities that is most likely to lead to the results that the public wants? lan Spellerberg attempts to address these questions which are at the he art of modern conservation action. It is relatively easy to prescribe useful activities that will benefit both the environment and the public at large.

Here are the tools and skills needed to conduct meaningful, comprehensive evaluations How do we know if a conservation education or outreach program is working? Practical Evaluation for Conservation Education and Outreach: Assessing Impacts & Enhancing Effectiveness presents a simple approach to using evaluation to design, monitor and assess education and outreach. It is for anyone whose organization or work involves creating educational programs designed to raise conservation awareness and promote pro-conservation behaviors. Even more than a how-to book, it can help you to build your organization’s capacity to conduct meaningful, comprehensive evaluations. The book’s purpose is to provide specific skills and knowledge that they can immediately put to use in conducting evaluation studies of conservation education programs. The reader will build an understanding that: - Evaluation yields useful information - Evaluation should be a part of a program’s design process - Evaluation can be a positive experience - Evaluation contributes to conservation education and outreach program’s success The reader will build their knowledge of: - Key evaluation terms and concepts - The relationship between evaluation and research - How evaluation processes and finding can contribute to decision making - The strengths and weaknesses of different evaluation approaches and data collection methods - The relationship among a program’s goals, objective, activities and expected outcomes The readers will be able to - Develop and refine key evaluation questions - Review and contribute to an evaluation plan - Construct and improve data-collection instruments - Collect credible and reliable data - Interpret results and draw conclusions This book provides practical advice on conducting evaluation that is specific for conservation professionals. Case studies describe how evaluation has led to program improvements in a range of conservation settings. While there are numerous books that describe how to conduct program evaluation, none provide specific examples and tools relevant to improving environmental outcomes.

The Framework for management effectiveness developed by the IUCN World Commission for Protected Areas was published in the first version of this Best Practice Guideline. It is further explained and interpreted, although not substantially altered, in this version. A number of key guidelines for good practice in evaluation are presented from many practitioners around the world, and important needs and directions for the future are identified.

This publication proposes a framework for assessing management effectiveness, recognising the need for a variety of responses depending on needs and resources. It aims to help all those who wish to assess protected areas, both in suggesting what needs to be done and in providing some guidelines. It includes six practical case studies from Australia, the Congo Basin, Central America, South America and the USA.

This book is the English version of "Evaluating Environmental Education" which was developed and financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries. The book is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the purpose of evaluation, evaluation of environmental education programs, and outlines the 13-step evaluation process. Sample questionnaires are included. Chapter 2 describes how evaluation can be introduced as an activity in organizations. Chapter 3 identifies and instructs how to use the 13-step evaluation process. (YDS)

Although environmental policy and program evaluation emerged rather late compared to many other areas of public policy, an energetic evaluation community in the environmental field has emerged during the last decade. This is a community of evaluators with diverse backgrounds in environmental sciences, social sciences, and general evaluation. Evaluation in the environmental field is characterized by complex policies and programs around wicked problems. They exist within complex systems composed of interacting environmental and socioeconomic systems. In furthering the state of evaluation in the environmental field, this issue of focuses on key methodological challenges: time horizons scaling data credibility research designs and counterfactuals Contributors look at each challenge with two chapters, to enhance a pluralistic discourse for development of the theory and practice of environmental evaluation. The authors?from Australia, Europe, and North America?represent the diversity of the community with respect to their formal training, personal experiences, and institutional affiliations. The issue concludes with two commentaries reflecting on the discussions in relation to that of contemporary evaluation in general and a summary of the insights for the future of environmental evaluation. These chapters cumulatively hold promise for furthering the quality of evaluations not only in the environmental field but in other fields as well. This is the 122nd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.