Monitoring changes in species distribution and abundance is central to the sustainable management of natural resources and the definition of conservat

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Monitoring changes in species distribution and abundance is central to the sustainable management of natural resourcesand the definition of conservation goals. However for many rare, widespread and cryptic species, monitoring over largespatiotemporal scales remains a serious challenge. A growing and increasingly complex set of analytical tools exists thatcan be used to estimate the abundance, density or occupancy of species across landscapes. The technical literature onthese methods emphasises the absolute necessity of controlling statistically for variation in detectability. Without this, realtrends in abundance cannot be separated from confounding trends in detectability, potentially leading to mistakenconclusions. Robustly distinguishing variations in abundance from detectability requires that specific assumptions aresatisfied, which in turn requires rigorous design and application of field methods. In practice, this usually means thatsurveys are designed and executed by professional ecologists, and have very substantial labour costs, particularly whenexecuted over large scales.In response to this cost constraint, another strand of the monitoring literature emphasises practicality. While recognising thedesirability of robust, unbiased monitoring methods, these studies point out such approaches are pointless if they are tooexpensive to be applied over sufficiently large spatial and temporal scales to provide the information needed formanagement. This is particularly true in developing countries, where funding is usually limited and intermittent, andmanagement priorities often demand information over large areas of remote, inaccessible terrain.Tension thus exists between those advocating monitoring methods that are, above all, accurate, and those who rather emphasise long-term cost effectiveness. While monitoring methods can be both accurate and affordable in somecircumstances, the tradeoff between cost and accuracy is nonetheless a pervasive and unresolved problem in biodiversitymonitoring. One approach to more sustainable monitoring has been involving local people. The benefits of this can be twofold:reducing labour costs, and facilitating the translation of monitoring results into effective management action. However,it remains important to structure information gathering to maximise accuracy. While there are some good examples of theintegration of local participation into ecological monitoring, it remains underdeveloped, and many questions remain aboutits effective application.This study will develop a new method for monitoring widespread animal populations in developing countries; interviewbasedoccupancy analysis. We aim to: test the approach with a range of species at different levels of density and spatialdistribution; assess the sources of variation in detectability, both biophysical and observer-based; quantify trade-offsbetween cost, precision and accuracy for different species and observer types (e.g. rangers vs pastoralist vs NTFPcollectors); make recommendations for future implementation of the approach.The study will be carried out in partnership with a ZSL project in Benin, which aims to strengthen conservation of the WArly-Pendjari conservation complex, globally recognised as a conservation priority. That project aims to support ProtectedArea management and protection, improve understanding of local community use of natural resources and explore optionsfor integrating community centred resource management into land use planning. Specifically this PhD research will helpthe project meet key objectives regarding wildlife population monitoring and engaging local communities in management.More broadly this research will have widescale applicability by advancing methodologies appropriate for efficient monitoringof wildlife populations at a large spatial scale under limited time and financial resources.