Volume 2 Pages 1 - 58 (March 1987)
Citation: Stuart, S.. (1987) An Action Plan For
The Conservation Of Otters. IUCN Otter Spec. Group Bull. 2:
2 - 4
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An Action Plan for the Conservation of Otters
Simon Stuart
Species Programme Officer, Species Survival
Commission, I. U. C. N., Avenue du Mont-Blanc, CH-1196 Gland,
Switzerland.
A fundamental aspect of SSC's work is the determination or
conservation priorities through the production of Action Plans. This
task is included in the Commission's terms of reference. A number of
high quality Action plans were prepared during the late 1970s, and the
SSC Steering Committee has now requested that a new generation of such
plans be produced. To assist us in these efforts, WWF have financed two
salaried positions in the SSC Executive Office. This article is being
written while discussions are still taking place between the Otter
Specialist Group leadership and the Executive Office on how the OSG can
take part in this new Action Planning process. These discussions might
well have been finalised by the time this article is published, so I
apologise for anything written here which is clearly out of date.
The new generation of plans are all termed "Comprehensive Action
Plans". They are the result of a study carried out by a Specialist
Group which includes an overview of the status of all the species within
their brief, a system of setting conservation priorities, and a
compilation of proposed projects which address these priorities.
Why are Action Plans needed? There are six principal reasons :
- 1. We need to know the priorities for species conservation, if we
are to effectively channel limited funds towards the most urgent
needs. A thorough knowledge of the priorities is also required if
SSC, and its Specialist Groups, are to provide the high calibre
advisory service which governments and conservation organisations
require.
- Not only do the priorities need to be known. They also need to be
published and thoroughly documented. Specialist Groups and their
members are not immortal, and information that merely resides in the
collective consciousness of the Group is always liable to be lost.
It is certainly not so readily available, and needs to be published
in a coherent form as an Action Plan.
- Action Plans can be used in fund raising. This is without doubt
the most controversial part of the Action Planning process. We are
well aware of the funding disappointments in the past, which stem
chiefly from the fact SSC has traditionally aimed its fund-raising
at one over-burdened, WWF. The new generation of plans is being
published attractively and will be aimed at a wider variety of
donors. Clearly, there will be disappointments in the future, but
the Executive Office will try to assist Specialist Groups in their
fund-raising to a greater degree than was possible in the past .
- The Executive Office, if it has the species conservation
priorities readily to hand for a particular group, is able to
exploit opportunities on behalf of the Specialist Groups. Often this
means incorporating a species element in other conservation
projects, such as habitat protection, protected area management and
National Conservation Strategies. We are aiming to have a much
stronger species component in general conservation initiatives.
- The larger the number of Action Plans that are produced, the more
we shall be able to identify regional "hotspots" of
species conservation concern. We are moving ahead rapidly in this
area. There are currently 34 Action Plans in preparation by 21
Specialist Groups. And we are considering new ways to make the
Action Planning process more applicable and effective for fish,
invertebrates and plants. We are working towards regional species
conservation strategies, in which we want all Specialist Groups to
be strongly represented.
- The preparation of an Action Plan is a good discipline for a
Specialist Group as it takes a hard, detailed look at the
conservation problems and assesses the priorities. The process is
proving successful in bringing several Groups to life. For a Group
with a long history of activity, such as the OSG, the compilation of
a plan might prove considerably easier than for some of the newer
Groups.
We in the Executive Office are very much looking forward to working
with the OSG in this Action Planning process. We are confident that the
long-term result will be an increased profile and effectiveness of otter
conservation. Your close relatives, the Mustelid and Viverrid Specialist
Group, are already working on such a plan, so it is now particularly
appropriate that the OSG should start as well.
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