Conservation “measures” represent the assessment or third phase of the plan-do-check-adapt conservation management cycle. The components described below explain how measures are actually integrated throughout the cycle, via:

• a well-articulated intervention or suite of interventions,
• a theory of change about how the intervention will lead to desired impact(s),
• short- and long-term outcomes to inform us of progress in implementing the intervention,
• indicators that allow us to actually evaluate these outcomes and impacts over time,
• analysis of those indicators that informs us as to whether we are making progress toward the intended results, and
• feedback and learning from this analysis that allows us to improve our work with this an other interventions.

Taken as a whole, the components outlined above equate to adaptive management (often referred to in the non-profit community as “results-based management ” or "monitoring and evaluation").