Measuring Success
The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization with the mission of preserving the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s conservation process.
For purposes of assessing progress toward our mission, The Nature Conservancy defines conservation success as the combination of three outcomes: the maintenance of viable biodiversity, abatement of critical threats, and effective protection and management of places where we take action with partners. These outcomes are measured in a variety of ways and at multiple scales, from local conservation areas to global habitats within the framework of both the 5-S approach and our ecoregional assessment methods. The results are used to guide management actions, resource allocation and future investments.
Collectively, these measures seek to quantify our conservation impact—the direct contribution of the Conservancy and our partners to conserving biodiversity. To hold the organization accountable for results, we aspire to measure success across the full portfolios, not just the areas identified as priorities for conservation action. We are working with a wide range of partners to develop linked monitoring systems that employ common types of biological, physical, social and economic indicators.
After measuring our success in each portfolio, we then set priorities, beginning the process again.
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