Our field staff have a deep awareness that successful wildlife conservation is predicated on the sustainable governance of natural resources within any given landscape or seascape.  As a result, most of our conservation programs are engaged in strengthening local governance of wildlife, wildlife habitat and other natural resources, and are attempting to track whether their investments are having the desired positive impacts.

Up until now there have been no simple, low-cost, and replicable ways to measure and understand the strengths and weaknesses of governance groups with legitimate jurisdiction over the management of natural resources within a given landscape or seascape. 

Though there are myriad ways to evaluate governance, there are really three core attributes that predict good governance.  

1st, stakeholders must perceive the governance group to have the authority (i.e., governing in their interests). 

2nd, the governance group must have the capacity to govern (i.e., the skills and knowledge to develop and implement a conservation plan; the staff, financial resources and the regulatory framework to put their plans into action; and the motivation to make and enforce conservation rules and regulations). 

3rd, the governance group must have the power to exert their legitimate authority, use their capacity and not be undermined by other less legitimate but more politically or economically powerful actors.  

With this for guidance, WCS has lead an effort funded by the USAID SCAPES program to develop a low cost, expert-opinion tool to identify all the governance groups with formal or informal authority over natural resources within a landscape or seascape and evaluate their governance strengths and weakness in terms of their authority, capacity, and power to govern.

Deploying this measure will not only help WCS landscape and seascape staff identify which groups need our help to govern their natural resources better, it will help us to monitor and report how are efforts are strengthening wildlife governance in the landscape and seascapes where we work.