Wetland biodiversity protection in Kamanos Strict Nature Reserve, Lithuania

• Mid-Term Evaluations should have stringent timing requirements. All GEF projects should mandate that mid-term evaluations occur at a specific date in the project cycle. This should include recruitment of international expertise at least six months prior to the planned MTE date. • Relatively small management teams can produce big results. Successful implementation project with a relatively small full-time technical and management staff is an indication of the project benefiting from a contemporary, strategic approach; authentic stakeholders buy-in; an implementation environment with relatively good capacity; and capable, motivated leadership. The team also showed a willingness to identify and recruit necessary technical assistance. • Valuable indicators measure impact and quality, not just production. Projects should benefit from carefully designed indicators that provide an accurate measurement of the delivery of outputs but, more importantly, measure the impact delivery has on objective conservation values. • Projects may benefit from continuity between PDF-B and implementation teams. This project benefited from having the same strong team working from the beginning of the project through to implementation. Capacity, team building, partnerships, and project “historical perspective” were all enhanced with this consistency.