Good policy is ok, but how do we implement policy that we are also able to monitor and evaluate over time?  How do we know that the activities we undertake on the ground will have the impact we expect?

This is a complex issue, especially in the evironmental sector.  Here turning good policy into good practice involves a clever mix of

• community engagement
• science
• trust (i.e. avoiding the pitfalls of the ‘my expert’s better than your expert syndrome’)

 and utimately, it requires policy that actually can be translated into action, monitored, evaluated and improved.

This was a topic of much discussion at last week’s Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) conference in Canberra.  There were a plethora of examples, workshops and ideas (stayed tuned, and I’ll post a link when the presentations go online).

For our part, we argued that good practice is impossible unless policy and investment is planned with a view to the evidence and monitoring that will be gathered to track the effectiveness of the activity.  Incorporating statistical survey design is one such approach.

Traditionally survey design is done just prior to going out in the field.  However, the first, most critical aspect of good survey design is having a well defined question to answer.  This, we argue, is where policy comes in.  During planning (whether planning a compliance or an investment program) we need to consider the long and medium term resource outcomes we which to achieve but ALSO asking what are the most appropriate metrics that can be monitored on the ground to track our progress towards goals.

This involves considering the size of the effect we are looking for and the power and the significance we can acheive through monitoring. 

But enough from me - you can download the full presentation here