BRONX, NY, July 7, 2026—Conservation practitioners around the world now have free access to a wide variety of practical methods for measuring conservation success with the launch of COMET, the Conservation Monitoring Effectiveness Techniques platform. While practitioners can choose from a wide range of monitoring methods, there has until now been no centralized, field-tested guide to which are most effective and cost-efficient in different contexts.

For decades, conservation organizations have invested enormous resources in planning and implementing programs to protect wildlife and wild places. Yet the field has lacked a centralized, freely available source of practical guidance on the most cost-effective ways to gather the data needed to evaluate those programs and adapt conservation strategies over time. COMET helps to fills that gap.

“We have limited resources for conservation, and monitoring can be expensive and time-consuming” said Dr. Gautam Surya, WCS Conservation Planning Scientist, who led the COMET team. “By enabling the people working on the ground—and in the water—to monitor outcomes cost-effectively, we can ensure that they have the information they need to make conservation more effective and equitable.” 

COMET was developed through the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP)—a collaboration of leading conservation organizations dedicated to improving conservation practice worldwide—with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and was led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a member of CMP. 

Through an extensive process, the COMET team consulted practitioners from more than 30 member organizations, alongside government agencies, universities, companies, NGOs, and Indigenous Peoples and local community organizations working on conservation monitoring worldwide. The result is a platform grounded in real-world field experience and freely available, covering species populations, habitats, threats and pressures, and human well-being. 

 “Conservation is most effective when we can learn across disciplines, communities, and ways of knowing.” said Dr. Kara Stevens, Senior Strategy, Learning and Evaluation Officer, Environment Program, Walton Family Foundation and a member of the CMP board. “COMET reflects that principle by creating a space where practitioners can efficiently identify how others are monitoring progress toward outcomes, discover approaches they may not have otherwise considered, and draw on scientific, local, and traditional knowledge to inform their work. In doing so, COMET is intended to help build a stronger culture of learning and adaptation across the conservation community.”

A recognition of the importance of Traditional Knowledge for conservation monitoring is a major feature of COMET. The platform provides dedicated resources and guidance to help conservation practitioners engage with Traditional Knowledge holders including Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the context of conservation monitoring, recognizing that these knowledge systems often represent generations of careful, place-based observations. The Traditional Knowledge portion of the project was led by Dr. Xiaoyue Li, a professor at Southern Methodist University.

“Conservation monitoring, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities have too often been brought in only as data points or data collectors for projects designed elsewhere,” said Dr. Li. “But communities are rights holders and knowledge producers, and the evidence is clear that conservation is more effective and more sustainable when it’s done with them rather than on them. COMET gives practitioners concrete and field-tested ways to engage communities as partners and to respect their right to consent and to govern their own knowledge.” 

 “Conservation practitioners have much to gain from standing on the shoulders of lessons learnt across the field, and from managing adaptively. Both rely on sound data,” said Dave Verkaik, Head of Business Intelligence for African Parks. “Yet while initiatives such as Conservation Evidence and the Conservation Standards catalogue what works and set out how to plan and adapt, there’s been no equivalent resource for the measurement methods both depend on. Over time, I hope to see the library grow and the sector close gaps for important ecological, social and biocultural indicators that currently lack a tried-and-tested method.”

As pressure on the natural world grows, the ability to measure what works, and act on it, is what turns effort into real outcomes for nature and people. Conservation practitioners are invited to submit their own monitoring methods at this link for review and potential inclusion in the repository, ensuring that COMET continues to expand and reflect the latest field innovations from the global conservation community.

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About the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP)
The Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) is a global collaboration of NGOs, government agencies, private businesses, and other conservation organizations working to improve how conservation is planned, managed, and measured. Guided by the Conservation Standards, CMP members share knowledge, develop practical tools, and promote best practices that help conservation practitioners measure results and adapt strategies over time. Established in 2002 by leading conservation organizations seeking a common approach to monitoring and evaluation, CMP continues to advance innovation through collaboration, enabling conservation teams worldwide to learn from shared experience and improve conservation effectiveness.