Sidney Island's teardrop Restoration Project (Gulf Islands National Park Reserve)
Abstract
Located in the Gulf Island National Park Reserve, Sidney Island is the foremost example of the region’s complex cultural and natural heritage value and represents the greatest opportunity to make an ecological difference and engage visitors, stakeholders, and partners.
End of 2015, the park staff was preparing a restoration project proposal for the Coastal Sand Ecosystem of Sidney island and several Species at Risk that depend on this ecosystem.
To support the elaboration of the strategic plan, an open standard software created by the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP, 2013) was used.
Based on CMP methodology, a conceptual model of the restoration project has been first developed to capture the relationships among conservation targets, threats and opportunities.
The scope, the vision and the conservation targets of the project were first defined. Two human wellbeing targets have been included in the conceptual model. Then the current status of each conservation target was established and critical threaths to the conservation target were identified. Afterwards, threats have been evaluated and compared so as to determine the ones that are most important to address.
In order to create a common understanding of the project’s context, relationships between the biological environment and the human factors that affect the conservation targets have also been identified.
Understanding better the context helps to clarify the best strategy that will achieve the conservation goals and objectives. It involves identifying the key factors that drive the direct threats and ultimately influence the conservation targets.
When the basic parameters for the project have been described, the next step was to elaborate the Action Plan by defining and developing goals, objectives, and strategies.
Once goals have been set it was important to identify where and how to intervene. A first decision was to prioritize on which factor in the conceptual model it was more relevant to take action. A threat rating has been undertaken to identify the factor showing the most important threats.
Researching existing strategies and discussing new strategies adapted to the context has enabled to develop a range of potential solutions.
Once selected, a results chain was developed for each strategy to portray all the steps necessary to lead to the conservations results. Result chains were also very useful for setting short-term objectives that lead to long-term outcomes. The results chain component became the principal measure against which it was possible to gauge the progress of the project and establish a formal Work Plan and a Monitoring Plan.
