The goal of this internship:

DEVELOP AN APPROACH TO ASSESSING THE OUTCOMES OF CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES AT THE LANDSCAPE SCALE

Three Steps:
1) Do a stakeholder analysis of the most important stakeholders that are directly influencing or influenced by the landscape and develop ways of ensuring that their interests and views are reflected in the “Outcome indicators framework”. 
2) To develop a set of indicators on the basis of stakeholder and expert views on how future changes in the landscape (restoration) can be best measured
3) Collect a data set of these indicators that will give a representative idea of the current situation and can be easily re-assessed in future years

Outputs:
1) A working document that clearly explains what indicators are used and how they are measured and a presentation of the first “baseline” measurement of this indicator set
2) An article, which deals the methodology and rationale for the indicator set selected and explains the constraints of this approach to the measurement of landscape restoration processes

Considerations:
- These indicators will measure the changes that occur on the “landscape” and in its ability to provide environmental and livelihood benefits – they will not be restricted to attributes that are directly impacted by the projects
- Definition: “Outcomes: = Actual changes in the Natural Resource System, both those that are caused by project activities and those that result from changes outside the control of the project
-Many projects fail to recognize that many changes in “landscapes” are driven by factors outside of the control of the project itself. It is important that projects measure or monitor these externally driven changes as they need to be taken into account in adapting the project activities to changing circumstances and changing stakeholder perceptions and needs – therefore the assessment framework should not only measure changes that are directly attributable to the project)

Research Questions
Which set of indicators of the 5 assets framework will measure changes in landscapes functionality in a way that is practical enough to enable data to be gathered each year? How can one ensure that the wishes of the different stakeholder are realistically incorporated into the outcome assessment process and thus into the activities of the projects.

Supervisors:
Dr. Jeff Sayer: Forests for Life Programme, WWF International
Dr. Pita Verweij: Utrecht University, Department of Science, Technology and Society  

For the new stories on my current field work	click here
For the new pictures of the field work	click here
For more info on this internship	click here
For the preliminary results of this research	click here