- Source: Nick Salafsky
Nick Salafsky is an authority on adaptive management and evidence-based conservation through his pioneering work at Foundations of Success, and definitive books including Measures of Success and Pathways to Success.
Early life
Born and raised in Chicago, IL, Nick Salafsky graduated from Harvard College in 1988 where he conducted interdisciplinary research on a locally developed agroforestry system and the behavioral ecology of the red-leaf monkey at the Cabang Panti Research Camp inside Mount Palung National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. He received his PhD in Environmental Studies from Duke University with an ecologic and economic study of locally developed land-use systems in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Salafsky worked within the Biodiversity Support Program and the MacArthur Foundation before co-founding the non-governmental organization Foundations of Success.
Salafsky lives in the Washington DC area, married to Julie Segre, together with whom he has two daughters.
Conservation work
In 2001, Richard Margoluis and Nick Salafsky launched Foundations of Success to pioneer work in promoting adaptive management for conservation projects and programs. The approaches used included Measures of Success (FOS). Applying adaptive management in a conservation or ecosystem management project involves the integration of project/program design, management, and monitoring to systematically state and test assumptions in order to adapt and learn. To develop a common set of standards and guidelines across conservation biology projects, in 2004, Salafsky and others established the Conservation Measures Partnership which developed Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. Salafsky and colleagues developed a standard lexicon for biodiversity conservation to unify classifications of threats and actions. To scale the implementation of conservation projects, Salafsky worked to design and develop the Miradi project management software.
Salafsky serves a Thematic Chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas, and an assigning editor for the journal Conservation Science and Practice.
Major Publications
Measures of Success
Pathways to Success