The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife worldwide. We do this by working with local people and governments in over 40 of the best wild places on the planet, and across the current geographic range of a suite of iconic species.

But how do we, our partners and our supporters know that our efforts are making a difference?

Within both the terrestrial and marine wild places where we work, we have decided to track and report our impact by using the most cost-effective methods for gathering credible data, over time, on the status of targeted wildlife species, their habitats, and direct threats; and on the livelihoods of local people, and the strengths and weakness of natural resource governance.

These 5-Measures were chosen because they reflect both the desired impacts (wildlife, habitat) and outcomes (threats) of our conservation efforts, and the strategies we most often deploy to effect conservation (law enforcement, governance and livelihoods). Moreover, the methods we use build on what we are already doing, are generally not too difficult to learn, implement and repeat, and are relatively affordable.