Ensure that planning focuses on significant conservation challenges.

Glob­al and region­al appli­ca­tions of this sci­ence-based approach can help iden­ti­fy the most impor­tant chal­lenges for the orga­ni­za­tion to con­front (Appen­dix H). When this infor­ma­tion is not known, it is crit­i­cal to con­duct the sit­u­a­tion analy­sis (see next step) before con­strain­ing the scope too far. Start­ing into a plan­ning exer­cise with pre-deter­mined foci that were not cho­sen through a sci­ence-based process risks miss­ing impor­tant chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties for con­ser­va­tion with­in a socio-eco­log­i­cal system.