Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS) Evaluation

Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS) Evaluation

1. Background

Conservation Assured (CA) is a conservation tool to set best practice standards for effective management of target species. CA fulfils the requirement for protected area management effectiveness in international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Global Biodiversity Framework and. CA works with IUCN’s Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, an initiative to encourage, measure and share the success of conservation management.

The first species-specific CA standards were developed for the tiger (Panthera tigris). Few tiger conservation areas are managed effectively for tigers. Tigers have already disappeared from several protected areas where they were until recently regarded as secure.

The Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) scheme provides an incentive to those responsible for tiger conservation areas in Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) to improve the effectiveness of management. The approach is based on long-term experience of both environmental certification schemes (e.g. the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)) and protected area management effectiveness assessments (e.g. the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Management Effectiveness Framework and associated systems) as well as a wide range of conservation management tools and expert knowledge, in particular IUCN’s Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas.

CA|TS is a set of 17 minimum elements with associated standards and criteria for effective management of tiger conservation areas. It is not a new management effectiveness system or a ranking of tiger conservation areas; but rather provides the means to tell if a particular area attains the best practice standards needed to conserve tigers. CA|TS provides an opportunity for individual tiger conservation areas or networks of areas to demonstrate their commitment to, and success in, protecting tigers. It is a voluntary, independent scheme for any area involved in tiger conservation. The “CA|TS partnership”, of which WWF is a part, is implementing CA|TS across the TRCs in partnership with the TRC Governments, other NGOs and IGOs like the Global Tiger Forum (GTF). 

CA|TS was formally launched at the Asia Parks Congress in Japan in 2013 and as such is now 10 years old. A review of the effectiveness of CA|TS is achieving conservation goals, and the barriers to further CA|TS expansion, is required.  A 10-year report on the journey of CA|TS was published in 2022. Although no formal review has been undertaken, the CA|TS international Executive Committee has been discussing and putting on record its observations and recommendations on the mandate, process, scope and impact of CA|TS in its various meetings. The current CA|TS structure will continue until June 2023, however an evaluation prior to GTRP 2.0 currently in an inception/development phase, is considered timely as it will take stock of the lessons, innovations, structure and results in order to inform the future direction of CA|TS post 2022. In FY23, WWF will also launch a revised strategy and operational plan for TAI, which this evaluation will usefully inform.

2. Evaluation Objective

This evaluation will provide the CA|TS partnership with an independent assessment of the achievements and key factors that have promoted or impeded achievements of CA|TS towards its objectives and progress made towards its vision, long-term goals, objectives and vision as laid out in the CA|TS manual (see below) -

 Vision

The evaluation report will provide advice for consideration to guide the revision and development of the CA|TS strategic and operational plans w.e.f 2023, as well as a revised version of the CA|TS manual.  In summary the evaluation will: -

• Focus on four evaluation criteria – relevance, innovation, impact and future design. The evaluator will outline the evaluation questions in the evaluation methodology;
• Identify the key outcomes and impacts delivered by CA|TS over the last 10 years and how these need to evolve in future to harmonize with global processes and frameworks;
• Identify and assess the factors that have contributed to these achievements;
• Identify any of the barriers which have prevented CA|TS meeting it’s long-term goals and provide recommendations for addressing these barriers.
• Capture learnings and provide recommendations to strengthen and inform the next CA|TS strategy in relation to priority setting, mandate, scope, strategy development, communications, resourcing and monitoring;
• Recommendations for the effective management and funding of CA|TS including formal roles of all partners;
• Build/Strengthen links/synergies with IUCN Green List.

3.   Evaluation Process

i)    Methodology:-

The first step should be developing an evaluation methodology and key questions with a focus on the four evaluation criteria – relevance, innovation, impact and future design questions

ii) Scoping

The scoping phase will provide the background information (including the discussion points and recommendations of the CA|TS International Executive Committee) to the evaluator by conducting the following activities:

- Desk review of CA|TS, progress reports and other documents;

- Call with CA|TS core team to discuss process and content of the review;

- Develop list of criteria for selecting interviewees;

- Develop list of key questions for the review;

- Develop list of CA|TS partnership interviewees

iii) Data collection and analysis

This stage is aimed at understanding what the expectations of the CA|TS partnership and WWF Network are for CA|TS and how far those expectations have been met until now. The data will be collected via a questionnaire with a small group and additional in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. The survey will include a selection of representatives across the CA|TS partnership including the WWF Network identified in the scoping stage.

• Design and distribution of an online questionnaire to a representational group (i.e. technical, fundraising, advocacy, communication experts from across donor and implementing offices) of CA|TS partnership including WWF colleagues who are directly relevant to CA|TS (including current and former members);
• Virtual interviews with key CA|TS representatives (e.g. WWF-TAI, CA|TS TRC focal points, CA|TS partnership members) to provide in-depth feedback;
• Virtual interviews with non-CA|TS implementing TRCs to find out why they are not implementing CA|TS

Outputs: -

Share findings of interviews and facilitate a virtual workshop with CA|TS core group to identify areas for further scrutiny in the next phase of the evaluation.

iv) Evaluation report

The evaluation report will be drafted examining in more detail the data collected in the first two stages. The draft evaluation report will highlight:

Relevance: A measure of the extent to which CA|TS represents a sufficient and well-founded approach to bring about positive changes in tiger conservation;

Innovation: A measure of the unique tools, strategies, interventions or products designed by TAI;

Impact: A measure of all significant effects of the conservation interventions, positive or negative on tiger conservation;

Future design: What can strengthen the design and delivery of the Initiative in terms of strategies and activities going forward?

4. Final report and action plan

The evaluator will present the findings in both written and PowerPoint format to the CA|TS International Executive Committee and Chair of the CA|TS Council at a virtual meeting including conclusions of the evaluation and actions required to improve CA|TS in its next phase.

The evaluator will incorporate feedback from the consultation process, as appropriate, and complete the final report and recommendations. The final report/PowerPoint will be disseminated to all CA|TS partnership members consulted in the review.

5. Evaluator

The evaluation will be led by an external evaluator and will report jointly to the Chair, CA|TS International Committee and WWF-TAI lead.

6. Time requirements 60 Days

• Scoping (5 days)
• Data collection and analysis (30 days)
• Evaluation (10 days)
• Final report and action plan (15 days)