Discussion Guide and Questions

Awareness and application of long-term monitoring data in the Pacific Islands
FOCUS GROUP DISCSSION GUIDE
Date ____________________________
Number of participants _____________
Introduction
Thank you for agreeing to participate in this focus group discussion. My name is ________________ and I am
facilitating the discussion today. I am part of a team that is collecting data on behalf of a project to assess
awareness and application of long-term socio-economic monitoring data in the Pacific Islands . You have been
selected to participate in this group discussion as you have been involved in designing and implementing longterm monitoring data in the Pacific island region or you have been identified as a current or possible user of the
data. Recently we have conducted a survey to examine awareness of available monitoring data and their uses. I
will share with you a brief presentation of the key results before we begin the focus group discussions.
The purpose of the group discussion today is to learn more about your experiences with producing and/or using
long-term monitoring data. We would like to obtain any suggestions you might have to optimize long-term
monitoring, with an emphasis on socioeconomic data, for better ecosystem-based management of fisheries and
coastal marine resources. The information you provide will help us make recommendations on the types of data
collected in the future, how to better integrate biophysical and social monitoring efforts, and ways to make the
data more useful for various types of users. We hope to outline a future socioeconomic monitoring plan in the
Pacific island region as a result of this project.
This focus group discussion will last about three hours. Your participation is voluntary. You may be assured of
complete anonymity. To protect your privacy, nothing you tell me will be personally attributed to you in any
written documents that result from this session. At any time during the discussion, please feel free to let me
know if you have any questions or if you would rather not be involved in the any part of the discussion. Please
remember that we want to know what you think and feel, and to discuss with other participants. There are no
right or wrong answers.
The public reporting burden for collecting this information is estimated to average 90 minutes to complete the
group discussion. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other suggestions for reducing this
burden to Supin Wongbusarakum, Ecosystem Sciences Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1845 Wasp Boulevard, Building 176, Honolulu, Hawaii
96818, supin.wongbusarakum@noaa.gov.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be
subjected to a penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the
Paperwork Reduction Act, unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control
Number
Is it OK if I record this discussion today? We are recording the session because we don’t want to miss any of
your comments. The recording and all raw data will be destroyed at the end of this project.
Thank you for taking the time to assist us with this effort. Do you have any questions before we begin?
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Privacy Act Statement

Authority: The collection of this information is authorized under the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000
(P.L. 106-562; 16 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.
Purpose: NOAA proposes to conduct a survey and focus groups. The information gathered will help inform
partners in coastal and marine resource management and conservation about the types of data that are important
for their monitoring programs, that can help fill data gaps, and that can improve integrated monitoring.
NOAA Routine Uses: NOAA will use this information to generate information that will help ensure that
monitoring programs are designed appropriately with useful indicators and are effectively implemented, and
that will help bring about conditions that are optimized for users to apply data effectively in their work and to
better integrate biophysical and socioeconomic monitoring in ecosystem approaches for fisheries, coastal and
marine management. Disclosure of this information is permitted under the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C.
Section 552a) to be shared among NOAA staff for work-related purposes. Disclosure of this information is also
subject to all of the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notice
Commerce/NOAA-11, Contact Information for Members of the Public Requesting or Providing Information
Related to NOAA’s Mission.
Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary; however, failure to participate in the survey or a focus
group will provide less information for use in this endeavor.

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Focus group semi-structured questions
1.)

What is your vision for long-term monitoring?

2.)

How has the long-term monitoring been in comparison to the vision?

3.)

Are there challenges in terms of availability of data or accessing data you need? If so, what are they?

4.)

(Following a brief presentation of the survey results), what do you think of the results? Do you have any
thing you would like to comment on or add?

5.)

Does management you are involved with have objectives related to benefiting human communities?
If yes, what are they? If not, what do you think are the reasons?

6.)

What would be indicators to evaluate effectiveness of alternative management scenarios?

7.)

How has collaboration among resource managers and monitoring teams been?

8.)

If you have worked across disciplines or collaborated with others from different disciplines, could you
please elaborate on factors important for successes or failures?

9.)

We are trying to integrate biophysical and social monitoring. What would you suggest to optimize such
integration?

10.)

What do you wish to see improved about monitoring design and process? [Facilitator may prompt with
the following topics: collaboration between people who collect the data and managers for decisionmaking, sampling design, monitoring resources, types of available data, how to access data, how data are
shared or communicated with those who may use them. Small group breakouts may be used to discuss
factors to overcome obstacles participants have experienced.

11.)

Is there any other area of improvement you would like to suggest? What would it be?

Thank you for your time!

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