The Company reformed its human resource management to implement strict selection of field personnel, strengthen staff guidelines, improve the efficiency of working practices, and prevent external poaching. A system of annual production quotas was developed, assigning the next seasons productivity according to the nest size and density of previous years, to monitor internal theft. Based on the biological information gathered by the science department, total nest yield per year and the yield in every cave are also predicted. Work was re-organized to make all team members responsible for the quota of nests in their care at nesting locations. Working conditions and salaries were improved, which resulted in more dedicated staff. Local authorities were involved in the prevention of external poaching: the provincial maritime police was contracted and a network of informants was established.

Sustainable management is a dynamic process which requires constant re-appraisal and analysis, matching specific management requirements to conditions occurring on the ground. Therefore, it remains necessary for the Company to assess all stages of human impacts and monitor the exploitation practices and timing of nest collections to determine impacts on the colonies and improve management decision-making.

The next step for the Khanh Hoa Salanganes Nest Company will be to continue development of its management guidelines through the following activities:

• Human resource management, including training of field staff, improvement in enforcement measures, and nest processing methods;

• Further scientific analysis of harvesting techniques and periods, and swiftlet ecology in individual swiftlet colonies to further refine transparent and replicable management methodologies in use at the cave level; and

• Development of experimental semi-wild farming practices and population control.

There are limitations to generalizing management methodologies, as factors affecting nesting colonies and their habitats can be site specific to a cave's locality. It is the development of specific management components that are important, and these can be applied to other bird nest industries and adapted to specific swiftlet colonies.

The research on edible-swiftlet nest exploitation and experience of the Company constitutes a valuable contribution to the discussions conducted, since 1994, by the Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which called for further research on the Collocalia genus biology, ecology and trade.