Monitoring involves the systematic gathering and analysis of information to help you understand what's happening with your conservation project. It is an integral part of a project's management because it provides essential information that:
- Measures progress
- Identifies problems
- Tells you whether your actions actually worked
- Helps you improve and do better next time
It also allows you to show others what you have achieved and how your efforts add value. The information can be useful, and even essential, when promoting the group or applying for funding.
It is important that monitoring is done well. If it is not, the information will not be reliable. The Department is developing national standards and specifications for monitoring biodiversity, both for what your did (your outputs) and what was achieved from that (the biodiversity outcomes). If we all monitor biodiversity in the same way, and gather that data in one place, we can evaluate it and use it to improve the way we manage biodiversity across the whole country.
Field based monitoring training
The Department provides training to support people doing monitoring and data analysis. More information about DOC's monitoring standards and methods will be available on soon.
The five-minute bird count technique monitors the abundance of forest birds over time.
This course looks at the impacts of possums on forest health, using indicator species.
This course looks at methods that monitor forest structure and composition over time.
This principles and best practice course provides an overview of weeds, their impact, and the control, inventory and monitoring methods DOC uses.