Standardizing the evaluation of community-based conservation success (Ecological Applications)

Community-based conservation, which strives to simultaneously improve nature conservation and alleviate poverty, must provide biological and socio-economic benefits that are linked through effective resilience mechanisms. To date, few community-based conservation initiatives have published comprehensive assessments that track performance in these elements of success. With 45% of the world’s protected areas in co-management with local communities, standardized measures to effectively evaluate the dual goals of community-based conservation are needed. To address this need, we developed SPECCS, a user-friendly Standardized Protocol for Evaluating Community Conservation Success that incorporates an appraisal of data quality to responsibly assess progress over time or to compare effectiveness among different initiatives (www.calgaryzoo.com/why-we-matter/our-approach). In <strong>Brichieri-Colombi et al. </strong>Standardizing the evaluation of community-based conservation success, <i>Ecological Applications,</i> we illustrate SPECCS’s use by evaluating the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary (WCHS) of northern Ghana 10 and 20 years after its inception. Presented here are additional (raw) data used to evaluate the WCHS. For additional data and more information, please see our published works.