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Evaluating the performance of a decade of Save The Tiger Fund's investments to save the world's last wild tigers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2007

BRIAN GRATWICKE ,
JOHN SEIDENSTICKER ,
MAHENDRA SHRESTHA ,
KARIN VERMILYE  and
MATTHEW BIRNBAUM
BRIAN GRATWICKE*
Affiliation:
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20036, USA
JOHN SEIDENSTICKER
Affiliation:
Department of Conservation Biology, Smithsonian's National Zoological Park, 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008, USA
MAHENDRA SHRESTHA
Affiliation:
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20036, USA
KARIN VERMILYE
Affiliation:
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20036, USA
MATTHEW BIRNBAUM
Affiliation:
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20036, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr Brian Gratwicke Tel: +1 202 857 5156 e-mail: brian.gratwicke@gmail.com
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Summary

This is the first attempt to analyse the performance of US 12.6 million invested by Save The Tiger Fund (STF) in more than 250 tiger conservation grants in 13 tiger-range countries. We devised a simple implementation evaluation method to assess performance on an ordinal scale using archival documents from project grant files. Performance was scored based on whether the grantee managed to achieve what they set out to do as articulated in their project proposal. On average, STF grantee project outputs exceeded their original objectives, but many confounding variables made it difficult to determine the ecological outcomes of grantees’ conservation actions. Successful projects were usually collaborative in nature with high community visibility and support, their results were disseminated effectively, and they informed policy, measured outputs, were grounded by strong sound science, supported by government agencies, attracted new donors and delivered results even when political factors created difficult working environments. The poorly performing projects were associated with one or more of the following factors: poor tracking of results, deviation from the proposal, poorly defined goals, lack of capacity, poor evaluation practices, lack of political support, weak transparency, work at inappropriate scales or purchase of high-tech equipment that was never used.

Keywords

environmental evaluationmeasuring conservation outputsoutcomesPanthera tigrisphilanthropythreat mitigation
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 255 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2007

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