Conservation project planning glossary: 20+ terms defined
Overview
Planning a conservation strategy comes with its own vocabulary. Whether you're creating your first current situation diagram, trying to understand the difference between a threat and a behaviour, or need to explain what makes something an intervention point to your team, this glossary provides clear definitions of essential conservation strategy planning terms.
All terms are used consistently across WildTeam resources. You can access the full glossary when you download the Project Planning for Wildlife Conservation best practice as part of the course.
All terms are used consistently across WildTeam resources. You can access the full glossary when you download the Project Planning for Wildlife Conservation best practice as part of the course.
Source: WildTeam. (2026). Project Planning for Wildlife Conservation v3. WildTeam UK, Cumbria, UK.
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Glossary of conservation project planning terms
B
Behaviour: A human action that drives a threat to a biodiversity target. Behaviours are described to include the name of the group carrying out the action and exclude behaviours that are not currently happening.
Behaviour result: The planned change in a current behaviour or the emergence of a new behaviour required to achieve a threat result. Behaviour results cannot be selected as intervention points because changing behaviours requires influencing the factors that drive them.
Biodiversity area: The geographical area within which the project team will focus their conservation efforts for the selected biodiversity targets. In most cases, boundaries can be clearly outlined on a map, though in some circumstances such as migratory species the boundaries may be flexible.
Biodiversity target: The species or habitat that the project is helping to conserve. Examples include specific species like jaguars or habitat types like coral reefs. Project teams should select a maximum of eight biodiversity targets to reduce unnecessary costs.
Biodiversity target result: The general planned change in the status of a biodiversity target that the project aims to achieve through reducing or removing threats.
Biodiversity target vulnerability rating: A rating based on the cumulative extent and severity scores of all the individual threats affecting a particular biodiversity target. This helps identify which targets face the greatest combined pressure from multiple threats.
C
Combined threat rating: A rating based on a threat's combined extent and severity scores across all the biodiversity targets that it affects. This helps identify threats that have significant impact across multiple targets.
Confidence rating: An assessment of the strength of evidence supporting linkages between influences, behaviours, threats, and results in the conservation strategy. Ratings range from very high to low depending on the source and specificity of information used to determine each linkage.
Current situation diagram: A visual representation documenting the biodiversity targets, threats, behaviours, and influences in the situation the project team is trying to change. The diagram helps the team understand and communicate the current conservation challenge.
E
Ecosystem services: Services provided to humans generated by biodiversity targets. The four types are provisioning services such as food and water, regulating services such as water and climate regulation, cultural services such as spiritual and aesthetic benefits, and supporting services such as nutrient cycling.
Extent: The percentage of a biodiversity target affected by a threat. This is one of two criteria used to assess the severity of threats, alongside the level of damage caused.
F
Feasibility rating: An assessment of whether a work package can be carried out based on available capacity (skills, processes, and physical resources) and consent (permission from key stakeholders). Ratings are calculated by scoring capacity and consent as sufficient or insufficient.
H
Human well-being: The state of human welfare that can be affected by conservation work. The five types are security relating to personal safety and access to resources, basic material for good life relating to adequate livelihoods, health relating to mental and physical health, good social relations relating to social cohesion, and freedom of choice and action.
I
Impact: The desired change caused by conservation work. Impact is measured through changes to biodiversity targets, threats to those targets, behaviours driving the threats, and influences affecting those behaviours.
Individual threat rating: A rating based on a threat's extent and severity scores in relation to a single biodiversity target. This helps prioritise which threats to address for each specific target.
Influence: Anything that drives a group's decision to carry out a behaviour. Influences should be named with the groups associated with them, be as specific as possible, and exclude influences that are not currently happening.
Influence result: The planned change in a current influence or the emergence of a new influence required to achieve a behaviour result. Influence results are the primary intervention points where work packages can directly create change.
Intervention point: A planned result that the project team will work to achieve directly through work packages. Intervention points are typically influence results or threat results, but cannot be behaviour results because behaviours change indirectly through influencing factors.
P
Planned change diagram: A visual representation showing the planned impact the project aims to achieve and the work packages that will be carried out to achieve that impact. The diagram builds upon the current situation diagram by adding planned results and work packages.
Project plan: The blueprint for the project containing all the major information the project team needs to carry out and assess the project. The conservation strategy is a key component of the project plan.
S
Severity: The level of damage to the biodiversity target that is affected by a threat. This is one of two criteria used to assess threats, alongside the extent of the target affected.
T
Threat: Something that is directly degrading a biodiversity target. A threat must be currently occurring and have a direct impact on the target's status, such as poaching, habitat destruction, or pollution.
Threat result: The general planned change in the status of a threat that the project aims to achieve. Threat results describe the reduction or removal of threats to achieve biodiversity target results.
W
Work package: A collection of related activities designed to directly achieve a planned result. Work packages should only contain activities that the project team, their partners, or their suppliers will carry out, excluding activities performed by target groups whose behaviour the project is trying to change.
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