Evaluating motivations and outcomes in conservation translocations

Conservation practice increasingly employs translocations (the human-mediated movement of living organisms) to address acute biodiversity challenges. While current guidelines for conservation translocations provide robust frameworks for their ecological and technical implementation, when it comes to human and social dimensions, they predominantly focus on stakeholder consultation and impact mitigation. This report proposes a new framework for systematically evaluating the broader human dimensions of conservation translocations, from conception through to evaluation. It identifies how identification of clear motivations – which are predominantly ecological, but often also shaped by other factors – can be linked to specific aims and intended outcomes and holistically evaluated.