Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP)

A Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP) is a tool developed by the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG - of the IUCN's (World Conservation Union) Species Survival Commission - SSC) for strategic conservation planning and the management of species and their habitat. A CAMP is a rapid, broad-based, comprehensive and scientifically-sound assessment of the taxonomic groups of a region or country using the IUCN's Red List criteria to categorise the level of threat facing species.

IUCN Red Data Books explicitly document and highlight biodiversity losses at the species level and are important tools for guiding the conservation activites of governments and conservation organisations. Red Data Books are furthermore widely recognised as the most comprehensive, apolitical evaluation of the conservation status of plants and animal species as well as measures of the success or failure of various conservation initiatives. Several species in fact, owe their continued existence or improvement in fortunes to the attention they have received as a result of appearing on these lists (Barnes, 2000).