Understanding what good practice looks like and how to develop your competence in different areas of ecological survey, management and mitigation is fundamental to professional development and progressing your career.
CIEEM has been working with volunteer members to develop taxa-specific competency standards that tell the practitioner what they need to know and what they should be able to do in order to demonstrate increasing levels of competence. These competency standards are derived from the CIEEM Competency Framework and have also drawn on the Ecological Competences: Skills and Process document published by Atkins in 2019.
By using these competency standards you are able to:
- Identify your current level of competence in the activity described.
- Understand the evidence you would need to demonstrate competence to others.
- Plan how to develop your knowledge and skills to move up to the next competence level.
Published Standards
We are pleased to publish the standards set out below.
- Reptile Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Great Crested Newt Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Water Vole Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Preliminary Habitat Survey and Reference Table
- Badger Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Aquatic Freshwater Macroinvertebrate and Reference Table
- Hazel Dormouse Survey, Mitigation and Management
The following Competency Standards are currently being drafted and will soon be published here for consultation. We welcome comments and feedback using the feedback form, which can be sent to to raisingstandards@cieem.net. The consultation on the draft Otter Competency Standard has now closed and the final version will be published soon.
Further Competency Standards in development include:
- Terrestrial Invertebrates Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Ornithological Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Bat Surveys, Mitigation, Management and Monitoring
- Freshwater and Transitional Fish Survey, Mitigation and Management
- Invasive Non-Native Plants Survey and Management
Each standard is being developed by a working group of volunteer members with subject expertise.
Developing Competence
A tracking spreadsheet is provided to accompany the Preliminary Habitat Survey standard. This presents the standard’s competency descriptors by level, with space to self-assess against each area, and prioritise CPD activities to support development from Basic to Accomplished.
Download the Preliminary Habitat Survey tracking template
An Evidence Form is included for individuals wishing to record their experience in more detail. Since taxa-specific standards are mapped to the skill areas of CIEEM’s Competency Framework, this evidence might then be uploaded through the My CPD portal to support membership upgrade, or shared with a line-manager to aid career progression and flag CPD needs.
This spreadsheet is entirely optional and is intended to help support and promote the use of the competency standard. We would be grateful for feedback to help improve this tool and please let us know at raisingstandards@cieem.net if you think this is a useful addition.
We are grateful to the following members of the steering group for their support for this project:
