Site-level Assessment of Governance and Equity (SAGE) for protected and conserved areas: manual for SAGE facilitators

From its first pilot in Tanzania in 2019, Site-level Assessment of Governance and Equity (SAGE) for protected and conserved areas (SAGE) has been used in over 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe and is now the most widely used tool for governance assessment conservation. 

SAGE facilitators in each of these countries have provided feedback that has informed substantial improvements in the tool and we have now reached the point where we are more than confident to openly release this SAGE users’ manual and SAGE data entry and analysis tool for use with any protected area or other type of conserved area that has some history of stakeholder engagement and willingness to work on improving governance and equity. 

This represent an important transition from tool development to scaling up which we hope will be further boosted by the inclusion of “equitably governed” in the new “30x30 target” for the expansion of area-based conservation.

Some SAGE users will need technical support (mentoring) over and above what this manual provides and IIED will, as far as resources permit, continue to provide this support. For more information, email phil.franks@iied.org.