Conservation Planning Tools Assessment

Barriers to Use

Organizational Support

The assessment asked what level of agreement each respondent had with the following statements regarding support for using conservation planning tools within their organization (see Figure 10 below).

Figure 10: Level of Agreement with Each Statement About Organizational Support, whereby +2=strongly agree and -2=strongly disagree

Statement	Agreed: Ranked +1 or +2 (Percent/Number)	Mean Summary
There is strong support for conservation planning tools in our organization.	49% (924)	+0.5
Our organization is very aware of the capabilities of conservation tools for planning-related work.	48% (896)	+0.4
Our organization has sufficient technical support for conservation planning tools.	44% (827)	+0.2
Our organization pays for all of the training we need in conservation planning tools.	27% (497)	-0.3
Our organization has funds allocated to invest sufficiently in conservation planning tools.	18% (341)	-0.6

Factors Preventing the Use of Conservation Tools

Respondents were also asked what factors have prevented them from using conservation planning tools in their work (see Figure 11 below).

Figure 11: Factors Preventing the Use of Conservation Planning Tools

Preventing Factor	Total (Percent/Number)
Cost of tool/software	55% (1028)
Time needed to learn tool	50% (944)
Cost of training	47% (883)
Not enough data/wrong kind of data	19% (361)
Hardware issues/not enough computer capacity	14% (255)
Not aware of tools/availability/uses/value	7% (136)
Tools not applicable/necessary/worthwhile/useful	5% (98)
Leadership/management/community-client not interested or supportive	4% (76)
Not applicable to position/used by others	3% (55)
Low priority/not the main focus of work/organization	2% (42)
Current tools are sufficient	2% (35)
Indicated at least one	89% (1663)

Level of Interest in Training

19% of all respondents indicated a "very high" interest in training with specific conservation planning tools. 32% had a "somewhat high" interest; 31% "moderate" interest; 11% "somewhat low" interest; and 6% "very low" interest. Only 3% had no answer. Map 1 below provides a regional look, specifically at the percentages of respondents in each with a "very high" and "somewhat high" interest in training.

Map 1: Level of Interest in Web-Based Training or Workshops Focused on the Use of Specific Conservation Planning Tools and Issues Related to Tools, grouped by 9 regions. The color scale and corresponding number represents the percentage of respondents in each region whose interest level was very high or somewhat high.

Planners face a number of challenges in using data for conservation planning. Of those, "finding money to pay for software and training" topped the list with 64% of all respondents. A "lack of trained staff" was reported by 47%. The issue of "not knowing what data and information are available to my jurisdiction/client" was claimed by 42%. 32% saw a "lack of local support" as one of their biggest challenges. Other answers are included in Figure 12 below.

Figure 12: Challenges in Using Data for Conservation Planning

Challenge	Percent/Number
Finding money to pay for software and training	64% (1205)
Lack of trained staff	47% (876)
Not knowing what data and information are available to my jurisdiction/client	42% (780)
Lack of local support	32% (605)
Technical difficulty of using unfamiliar data	31% (578)
Suitability of scale	29% (540)
Obstacles to data sharing	25% (460)
Unfamiliarity with particular ecosystems or habitats	11% (201)
Lack of time	2% (33)
Other	7% (132)
Indicated at least one	90% (1689)
None	5% (85)
No answer	5% (98)