"Adaptive management incorporates research into conservation action. Specifically, it is the integration of design, management, and monitoring to systematically test assumptions in order to adapt and learn."
---Foundations of Success
We are currently working on finalizing our practical sets of indicators and measurements that will easily allow us and our community members to measure the impact of our actions and to monitor the techniques we use and the projects we put in place. Project monitoring and analyses enables us to tweak and change our approaches to ensure that techniques and projects meet the goals they seek. Theory without action is useless; a good idea on paper doesn’t always work out in the field and we strive to continuously gather that feedback and use it to make better decisions in the future.
All too often people collect data first, and then later try to figure out how to analyze it and determine what conclusions can be drawn. Deciding what we need to know from the start informs the kind of analysis that should be done, and what information should be collected. A well-designed approach saves time and money and avoids unnecessary data collection.
It is a critical for environmental conservation and community development projects to start getting it right and create projects that are truly sustainable—projects that produce substantial benefits for local communities and the environment—without making so many of the sacrifices and tradeoffs that many “greenwashing” organizations have already committed. Ecological monitoring systems assess the impacts of the community projects on the distinctive biodiversity features the program is meant to protect, and the people it is meant to serve. In order to effortlessly adapt and grow, it is critical to have a system that collects research and records appropriate data that is then analyzed and fed back into the project to allow for adaptation and growth to maximize success and benefits—this is adaptive management.
Our monitoring project helps us test techniques and practices, record data, and share, compare, and analyze project success. We hope to use our strong scientific backgrounds to help provide field-data that is specific to the tropics and plan to share these indicators and recording methods with all the families, farmers, and community groups who are using these strategies and techniques for change. We strive to test and record data for as many different strategies, test plots, techniques and projects as feasible. We hope to provide useful data from the field to discover the best interactions of soil fertility, food output, and success of natural fertilizers, and preventive measures for pests. We plan to record long-term scientific data for the following: soil fertility, pests, garden output, seed distribution, conservation, and poverty reduction.
