Five Year Strategic Plan for the Society for Conservation Biology: 2011-2015

Introduction

The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is a global community of professional conservation scientists and practitioners with thousands of members worldwide. SCB’s membership and the breadth of its activities have grown substantially since its founding in 1985. The establishment of an executive office in Washington, DC in 2001, and the 2007 creation of a policy office considerably increased SCB’s organizational capacities. Since 2003, the establishment of sections has fostered SCB’s involvement with regional questions and has enhanced the recruitment and retention of members and visibility around the world. Global and section-level meetings have attracted numerous young conservation professionals and fostered the initiation of new chapters in many countries. The journal Conservation Biology was founded in 1987. The subsequent launch of Conservation magazine in 2001 and the journal Conservation Letters in 2008, as well as the inclusion of Pacific Conservation Biology in our suite of journals, have expanded our set of multidisciplinary publications.

SCB has developed this new strategic plan to create a common vision for the organization, focused on five strategic areas for the period 2011-2015, and on key objectives within each area. SCB’s executive office, committees, sections, working groups, and chapters will now develop plans for implementation of programs and activities consistent with achieving our strategic objectives.

Reflecting current opportunities and constraints, this plan draws on SCB’s past successes and challenges, particularly our work since 2003 on developing a global organization. Over the next five years this strategic plan and the corresponding implementation plans and activities will guide our work as a leading conservation science institution worldwide, with global and regional development of programs and services valuable to a diverse body of conservation scientists and practitioners. This will maximize our conservation impact while enhancing our financial stability and organizational growth.

The SCB Executive Office will facilitate the implementation of this strategic plan through the coordinated work of our committees, sections, chapters, and working groups, leveraging the strengths of each of these organizational structures. SCB will enact a fiscally responsible implementation approach, wherein expenditures will require both identification and coordination of funding sources and clear implementation plans. These implementation plans will elucidate that initiative’s objectives, incorporate an explicit link to the corresponding objective in this strategic plan, and specify the purpose and rationale for that initiative’s expense.

Achieving the goals and objectives identified in this plan will strengthen the application of science to the practice of conservation, furthering the mission of our community of conservation professionals to advance the science and practice of conserving the Earth’s biological diversity.

Board of Governors
Society for Conservation Biology
Approved 29 September 2010
Washington, DC, USA

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