A Strategic Plan for Monitoring Birds in the Gulf of Mexico: Translating Stakeholder Values into Priorities

Conservation planning for large, dynamic coastal and marine ecosystems has multiple benefits, but is often challenging to implement. In addition, decision making can be hampered because many frameworks do not have a way of addressing and incorporating the multiple values and concerns of stakeholders. Prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, avian monitoring projects frequently used study designs which were inconsistent with understanding species trends, response to management or understanding ecological processes at the Gulf of Mexico scale. In response to this, the Gulf of Mexico Avian Monitoring Network was created and subsequently, used the principles of structured decision making to identify stakeholder objectives and values, which were used to evaluate and rank bird monitoring priorities. By using stakeholder objectives and values to identify bird monitoring priorities, practitioners and decision makers have: (1) a set of agreed upon objectives and core-values; (2) a transparent means of setting priorities across political and jurisdictional boundaries; and (3) a framework to facilitate communication and collaboration of data needs.