The Site Conservation Planning methodology was derived to enhance protected area and general conservation planning by developing conservation strategies based on
a careful identification of focal biological systems and analyses of their viability, a prioritized ranking of the stresses that impair the health of those biological systems and the sources of those stresses, careful measurement of conservation success that will ensure the adaptive management of conservation actions at sites.
Site Conservation Planning for Latin America is the fruit of a decade of cumulative efforts from thousands of site-based conservationists working with The Nature Conservancy and its conservation partner organizations who have tirelessly tested the validity of elements of the methodology. Site Conservation Planning is itself not a product; it is a framework and approach for ensuring the effective delivery of positive conservation impact, evidenced by improving the health of biodiversity and abating the threats that place that biodiversity in peril. The framework is a proven, pragmatic, and directed means for site conservationists to identify their critical needs hierarchically and develop prioritized conservation action for the protection or improvement of biodiversity health and the reduction and removal of critical threats.
Because this framework links the focal elements of biodiversity used in planning - be they mangroves, coral reefs, or jaguars - with their most pervasive and critical threats, the conservation strategies that result are more powerful, more focused, and ultimately more efficient and effective at conserving biodiversity. Moreover, the Site Conservation Planning framework is a scale-independent process. Equally functional at scales of geographic regions, nations, ecoregions, multi-site landscapes, individual protected areas, or on private lands, the target- and threat-based approach to development of conservation strategies serves as a flexible yet solid foundation to identify conservation priorities and strategies for action.
Introduction to SCP.