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Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Published on: July 24, 2016

Using strategic foresight to assess conservation opportunity.

Carly N Cook¹, Bonnie C Wintle, Stephen C Aldrich

¹School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.

Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology

|November 11, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Strategic foresight offers a proactive approach to conservation planning by anticipating future challenges and opportunities. This structured process helps identify and exploit conservation opportunities, leading to more effective policy and management.

Keywords:

biodiversity conservation conservación de la biodiversidad conservation policy decision making environmental futures futures research futuros ambientales investigaciones futuras pensamiento estratégico planeación estratégica políticas de conservación strategic planning strategic thinking toma de decisiones

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Area of Science:

Conservation Science
Strategic Planning
Environmental Management

Background:

Conservation efforts often adopt a reactive stance, leading to costly solutions.
Proactive conservation necessitates forward-looking decision-making that considers future possibilities.
Strategic foresight offers a structured framework for anticipating and shaping desirable futures.

Purpose of the Study:

To present strategic foresight as a tool for proactive conservation planning.
To describe key foresight tools for identifying and exploiting conservation opportunities.
To encourage the adoption of strategic foresight in conservation policy and management.

Main Methods:

The strategic foresight process involves six steps: setting scope, collecting inputs, analyzing signals, interpreting information, determining actions, and implementing outcomes.
Key tools include scanning for information, scenario planning for exploring futures, and backcasting for goal-oriented pathfinding.
Application demonstrated through a strategic plan for climate change in New York State.

Main Results:

Strategic foresight facilitates a broad-minded, forward-looking perspective crucial for conservation.
Tools like scanning, scenario planning, and backcasting help identify opportunities and barriers.
The New York State climate change plan utilized foresight to identify effective solutions across various future scenarios.

Conclusions:

Strategic foresight enables proactive identification and realization of conservation opportunities.
Its structured approach can overcome limitations of reactive decision-making in conservation.
Adoption of strategic foresight can lead to more effective and resilient conservation policies and practices.