2.3 Conservation organization is capable of acquiring lands or resources and assuming active management responsibilities.

Does your organization want to oversee exclusivity? If full or partial exclusion of other activities is necessary to achieve the conservation goals identified for the site, then conservation organizations must determine if they want to oversee the exclusivity or if they can rely on others to do so.

In many cases, exclusivity over lands and resources within ocean and coastal waters could be implemented by either public or private entities. While private conservation organizations can always advocate that regulatory agencies and landowners protect and better manage ocean and coastal sites, there may be circumstances when they want to do it themselves. Organizations may want to directly administer exclusivity for reasons such as:

• The conservation priorities at the site are rare, sensitive, or critical to the organization's success;
• The organization has invested substantial financial and staff resources in the site; or
• The protection needed at the site is long-term and other protection mechanisms cannot be guaranteed into the future. (“Long-term,” of course, is variable and can be any length of time from one year, to 50 years, to perpetuity.)

Some conservation organizations, however, are not accustomed to acquiring proprietary rights or assuming long-term responsibilities for the care of lands and resources, particularly within ocean and coastal waters. Depending on the specific site and resource, leasing, owning and managing ocean and coastal lands and resources may require expertise that many conservation organizations do not have. In addition, organizations must be able to estimate costs and secure funding for the initial lease or acquisition and the subsequent, long-term restoration and conservation activities proposed for the site (see Step 4 Implementation). The funding must be sufficient to cover planning, permitting, material resources, staffing and development of expertise. In addition to these tangible resource needs, conservation organizations will need patience in order to develop and implement leasing and ownership projects which may set precedents and be controversial.