About the SMART Competences - Register of Competences for the users of the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool

The SMART Competence Register was developed at the initiative of the SMART Partnership. The goal has been to define and classify the competences needed to use SMART effectively in the adaptive management process of biodiversity conservation.

The SMART Partnership strongly believes that competent human resources are key for the successful implementation of SMART. This register aims to provide guidance to define skills, knowledge and personal qualities required by SMART users.

This register defines the competences needed for the technical and practical deployment and use of SMART, for creating the enabling environment for SMART to function and for making use of SMART to improve planning and management of conservation areas. It is intended to serve conservation area managers and partners who are using SMART or planning to use the SMART approach in their biodiversity conservation endeavours. It is an important and useful tool also for individuals and entities that are supporting conservation teams in the preparation, introduction and implementation of SMART.

At present, SMART is being implemented in more than 500 conservation areas in 47 countries worldwide, becoming rapidly the global standard for wildlife law enforcement monitoring and management in protected areas (terrestrial and marine), community-managed lands, and conservancies¹.The list of competences in this register is built on the experience of implementers and technical support persons engaged in the SMART process around the globe.

SMART teams need staff with management competencies, analytic and computer skills, competences for processing and evaluating field and patrol data, for effective communication between managers and field staff, as well as with local communities. The complex combination of knowledge, skills and attitude needed for adaptive management approaches in conservation areas is recognised to be critically important for considering SMART not only a tool, but as approach for the effective management of conservation areas.

A better understanding of the competences required for the SMART approach will help managers of the conservation areas to establish their teams and to develop and implement well designed capacity development plans that are responsive to the needs of those involved. Building appropriate human capacity for implementing SMART should be one of the basic building blocks for a SMART approach that effectively contributes to adaptive management in conservation areas.

It is recommended that implementing agencies and technical support agencies use the SMART Competence Register to evaluate human resources available and needed for the effective use of the SMART approach, as well as for continuously improving capacities.
SMART users are sometimes discovering by themselves the competences they need, but in most cases are relying on trainings provided by the SMART Partnership, technical support teams or individual trainers. The competence register should help trainers to determine training needs of their target groups and adapt their approaches, hence to improve effectiveness and efficiency of capacity building in support of the conservation teams.

The approach in structuring and defining the competences is inspired from the Global Register of Competencies for Protected Area Practitioners (Appleton, 2016), called hereafter the Protected Area Competence Register.

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¹ SMART: A Guide To Getting Started, 2017