| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
The Lake Windermere Project was used as a case study that aimed to identify key factors of success in community based ecological monitoring. The Lake Windermere Project successfully overcame commonly recognized challenges, such as obtaining adequate funding, adopting a standardized monitoring protocol, selecting an appropriate monitoring approach, and linking monitoring data with decision-making. This research found the other key factors included: • Providing positive feedback to volunteers on their roles, such as a volunteer recognition program • Using skills assessment to match volunteers with appropriate tasks • Establishing a method to deliver information to decision-makers to make monitoring data useful • Obtaining ongoing and adequate funding to support the project • Involving experts in the design of monitoring initiatives to improve their monitoring effectiveness • Developing partnerships with stakeholders to enhance capacity and link to decisionmakers • Using monitoring protocols to ensure reliable data is collected • Training and supervising volunteers to ensure proper monitoring is undertaken • Avoiding “datakleptomania” – collecting monitoring data without any real purpose or objective • Identifying stakeholders at beginning of process (multi-party approach), assess skills and resources, create communication plan for decision makers. • Making monitoring information usable |
