Demonstrable financial and environmental benefits will provide stronger justification for the construction of selleck compound future mitigation measures. Thorough evaluation of road mitigation projects will answer two questions: What additions or changes in mitigation measures need to be made to improve effectiveness? And: What mitigation

measures use the fewest resources? Hence, road mitigation evaluations will help us to provide cheaper but more effective ways of mitigating road effects on wildlife. Incorporating proper evaluations in road planning The evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of road mitigation is a unique collaboration between those who plan, design, construct and manage the road, and scientists who study the responses of flora and fauna to the road and mitigation measures. Achieving a productive partnership between these groups is a significant challenge that must be overcome to move mitigation selleck chemical from the realm

of assumed best practices into good science. Successful evaluation studies are likely to require collaboration between researchers and road planners commences at the very earliest stages of road planning. A proper evaluation is characterized by a BACI study design, which includes several years of measurements before the road mitigation takes place. this website This is in contrast to current practice where discussion about the evaluation of road mitigation works typically begins after the road mitigation has already been installed. A change in this practice can, in our opinion, be best accomplished if the preparation of a monitoring plan for the evaluation of planned road mitigation measures is made an inseparable part of the legal processes that must be followed during

the road planning stage (e.g., similar to the EIA process). Practical experience (van der Grift, pers. obs.) has shown many that even in a country like The Netherlands where road mitigation is high on the political agenda, there is little effort to incorporate studies that evaluate effectiveness until late in the planning and construction process, probably because there is no legal requirement for the early development of a monitoring plan. Education of road planners, or presentation of guidelines for road mitigation evaluation during road planning may be helpful, but are not likely to be as effective as statutory duties and associated regulations. Another important factor in the success of an evaluation study is that all necessary resources are secured beforehand. Currently, road mitigation construction and road mitigation evaluation are often organized and administered as two different projects. The result is that construction can easily proceed without evaluation and that the preparation of a proper monitoring plan and the provision of resources for evaluation studies do not occur simultaneously with the construction planning.