Story by Caroline Stem (Foundations of Success and Conservation Measures Partnership)
The Conservation Measures Partnership is pleased to release version 4.0 of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (click on the link for a full version and specific chapters)!
We are really excited about this release and ask all of you to help us promote it widely! Please also follow us on and share posts from our newly established Twitter account and LinkedIn profile.
This version of the Conservation Standards (our new shorthand name) is the culmination of 2 years of work across our community – from technical input to editorial suggestions to formatting support. We could not have achieved this without the support of this fantastic community of ours!
Who Was Involved? Version 4.0 had a higher number and wider range of participants than any other version of the Conservation Standards. A huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in this process. The Conservation Standards are a more robust product because of your efforts. Those who were part of the revisions working groups and provided core content for Version 4.0 included:
Annette Stewart (Bush Heritage Australia), Ari Cornman (California Fish and Game Commission), Arlyne Johnson (Foundations of Success), Brad Northrup (Conservation Coaches Network), Caroline Stem (Foundations of Success), Catherine Payne (Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust), Clair Dougherty (Bush Heritage Australia), Dan Salzer (The Nature Conservancy), Felix Cybulla (Independent, Conservation Coaches Network), Gustavo Gatti (Conserve Brazil), Hui Shim Tan (WWF-Malaysia), Ilke Tilders (Foundations of Success), Irina Montenegro (WWF Chile), John Morrison (WWF US), Judy Boshoven (Foundations of Success), Kerryn Morrison (Endangered Wildlife Trust), Lydia Gaskell (WWF International), Marcia Brown (Foundations of Success), Mariano de la Maza (CONAF Chile), Mariella Saenz (Pronatura), Nick Salafsky (Foundations of Success), Oscar Maldonado (Independent, Conservation Coaches Network), Patrick Crist (NatureServe), Philippa Walsh (Community Solutions), Sandra Andraka (UNDP), Thomas Miewald (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Will Beale (WWF-UK). In addition, a handful of reviewers provided significant feedback that helped refine and improve the content.
The Process: This table summarizes our timeline and the major steps we took to create Conservation Standards 4.0.
What’s Next? We are working with a design firm to develop a Word template, so that we can transfer the content to Word (if you have awesome Word skills, let us know!). Even though Word can be clunky, it is widely available, which will ensure that all translations have the same professional look and feel as the English version. We are in the process of producing translations in French, Portuguese, and Spanish and expect these within the next 6 months. If you are interested in proposing a translation in another language, you can submit a letter of interest to CMP (caroline@fosonline.org) to apply for modest funding.
