The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men?

Nine easily available management planning guides, all aimed at UK protected sites (SSSI, Natura 2000, Ramsar, etc.), have been compared in a recent study in the Journal for Nature Conservation . Basic formats recommended by these guides were similar, so that plans based on them should look superficially alike. In contrast, definitions of key terms (vision, objective, and constraint or factor) often varied significantly between guides, even though there is a great deal of collaboration between publishing organisations. Additional guidance and rules for objectives only increased differences between guides, and created differences even where definitions were similar. The bottom line? The variable nature of management planning guidance raises concerns about the consistency of plan preparation.