The management plan is co-developed with stakeholders, rights-holders, and local agencies and communities, and integrates measures outlined during planning (See SC13) and results obtained from monitoring and adaptive management.
The plan builds, as far as possible, on effective local and traditional restoration practices.
The plan incorporates relevant management agreements and includes a detailed description of all required activities specifying their duration of time and frequency.
The management plan involves subject matter experts, including stakeholders and rights-holders, who can help develop innovative management methods based on lessons learned from other projects.
The management is plan available to all those involved in the ongoing management of the project.
The management plan identifies the ongoing management team, and clearly communicates roles and responsibilities of members of the team.
The management plan is modified based on the results of periodic monitoring, and on changes in trade-offs or stakeholder or rights holder interests or needs.
If not fully secured, appropriate long-term sources of funding for ongoing management are determined. There is coordination with other restoration projects to reduce costs and duplication of effort. These synergies can include, for example, alignment of schedules to facilitate sourcing of plant materials, sharing equipment, and monitoring.
The project conducts periodic monitoring of the site to check for re-occurrence of degradation and to protect the investment in restoration, ideally involving local stakeholders.
The project conducts site protection measures needed to prevent deleterious external or internal impacts (e.g., protection from unsustainable grazing, prevention of inappropriate fire, prevention of unsustainable harvesting, control of infestations by invasive species, management of weeds and other vegetative competitors).
The project ensures essential ecosystem functions and processes are operating as appropriate and required to maintain ecosystem integrity and provide ecosystem resilience to degradation stressors (e.g., management of hydrological regimes, ensuring natural disturbance regimes such as periodic fire in fire-adapted ecosystems or flooding of riparian zones).
The project facilitates beneficial external exchanges with the broader landscape or seascape, including the exchange of genetic material in fragmented landscapes and seascapes (e.g., through hand pollination or movement of propagules), or for depleted populations suffering from inbreeding depression or other genetic deficiencies.
The project develops or supports training and stewardship programs for local communities and practitioners, to improve ongoing management of the site and prevent harm from inappropriate management.
The project communicates to new generations about long-term project trajectories and outcomes to ensure that the restoration project and past investments are valued. This can be accomplished by continuing cultural activities that maintain the history of the project and celebrate its achievements, by reinforcing lessons learned including the opportunity to carry out similar projects elsewhere, and though science education and research.
The project provides a governance structure to oversee ongoing management and stewardship of the site, and ensure legal protections for the investments made in restoration.
The project prepares contingency plans and protocols in case known degradation drivers re-emerge (e.g., populations of invasive animals that were previously managed through a biocontrol agent that ceases to function).
The project invests in knowledge sharing, acquisition, and training to incorporate updated best practices when designing and implementing responses to unexpected or unforeseen events that threaten the integrity of the restoration site.
The project adopts a policy of continuous improvement informed by reliable monitoring. Such a policy can allow managers to continually upgrade and build on project goals to advance initial recovery toward progressively higher outcomes, seeking the highest level of recovery possible over the long-term.
The project seeks opportunities for the implementation of additional restoration activities or projects at the project site or in the broader landscape or seascape through replication or scaling up.
The project conducts additional restoration activities that take advantage of the improved condition of the site (e.g., infill planting, reintroduction or augmentation of rare species, reinstatement of natural disturbance regimes).
The project ensures ownership from local communities, so that they benefit from ongoing management and are involved in continuous improvement.
The project explores further funding mechanisms and capital investment to extend restoration at sites, including the development of partnerships with local agencies and other partners.
