Eco-Index: Best Lessons Learned

Best Lessons Learned



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June 2006

Organization(s): Belize Tropical Forest Studies (BTFS)

Lessons Learned

Determining whether a project is meeting its objectives is essential and can best be carried out by asking stakeholders for their opinions and input on a regular basis. The more often such assessments are undertaken, the greater the chances that slight adjustments in the project can be quickly made to meet stakeholder needs. Regular assessments also create a greater feeling of community involvement in the project. The community should provide the critical input necessary to ensure the project’s objectives are tangible, focused, and realistic.

If a project is to serve its stakeholders, then it must be accountable to them as the true benefactors of the project’s efforts. Use of reporting methods such as annual reports, even for the smallest of projects, increases public relations with stakeholders, partners, and the general public while helping to maintain the level of accountability required by most donors. It's a simple way to maintain transparency, encourage participation, and maintain/increase project awareness within the community.

If a project has a high perceived value among its stakeholders and partners, there is a good chance that those participants are willing to share the financial burden of ensuring the long-term sustainability of the project. Long-term financing has been a major impediment to the sustainability of information management projects in conservation. BERDS has found that if you can create sufficient value for your participants, they are more than willing to actually help share the financial burdens of maintaining such a project into the future. As well, the more you can institutionalize the project into your partners’ day-to-day workflow, the greater the project’s chances of long-term survival through cooperative financing.

Don’t expect too much too soon. It can take a while to generate the momentum necessary to achieve objectives related to participation. It is essential to make project partners understand how much their contribution is valued and how important and/or crucial that contribution is to the project’s success. Communication, creativity, and vigilance are often necessary to generate the participation levels required to make some projects successful.

Goals

The strategic implementation of BERDS’ mission is based on three major premises:
- Research: to provide the scientific and analytical components necessary to begin addressing important research questions and generating viable solutions.
- Partners: to work closely with the governmental, non-governmental, community-based, and private sectors to provide access to relevant environmental data that has been contributed from all stakeholders.
- Results: provide an authoritative research database and access to a wide variety of analytical tools which allow stakeholders the opportunity to turn their collective data into actionable knowledge.