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Conservation projects, like any other projects, are designed to change something to have an impact on some state or condition. In the case of conservation projects, the main goal is to protect biodiversity. One of the major differences between conservation projects and other projects, however, is that it is often very difficult to define clear, operational terms exactly what it is that conservation projects are trying achieve. To make the challenge even more difficult, the science of conservation is not as well developed as in other fields. Ultimately, because conservation outcome is not clearly defined and these causal links are poorly understood, it makes it very difficult to figure out which interventions work, which do not work, and why. Most recently, measuring conservation impact has been indicator-driven and the realm of evaluation experts. This publication presents a new approach to measuring the success of conservation impacts. The Threat Reduction Assessment (TRA) approach is a low-cost, practical alternative to more cost- and time-intensive approaches to project evaluation. The TRA approach is based on data collected through simple techniques, directly related to project interventions, and readily interpreted by project staff.
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