Frequently Asked Questions
What is evidence-based conservation?
There has been a revolution in medicine. It used to consist of trainee doctors following consultants and learning from their experience. It was then realised that there were enormous discrepancies in practice between hospitals which, when compared, showed striking differences in recovery rate of patients between approaches. This led to evidence-based medicine in which the assessment of effectiveness underpins almost all current practice. The approach to medical practice 30 years ago was similar to the current approach to nature conservation, so a number of people (Pullin & Knight 2001, Sutherland 2000, Sutherland et al. 2004) suggested that a similar revolution would benefit conservation management. The vision is that the assessment and dissemination of the effectiveness of conservation actions will be a routine part of conservation practice and that systematic reviews will feed this information back to practitioners. This has led to ConservationEvidence.com (an online database of the effectiveness of conservation practice) and the Centre for Evidence Based Conservation (CEBC), which carries out systematic reviews. References: Pullin A.S. & Knight T.M. (2001) Effectiveness in conservation practice: pointers from medicine and public health. Conservation Biology 15, 50-54. Sutherland W. J. (2000) The Conservation Handbook: research, management and policy (pages 111-113). Blackwell, Oxford. Sutherland W.J., Pullin A.S., Dolman P.M. & Knight T.M. (2004) The need for evidence-based conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19, 305-308.
Who can use this information?
The information in ConservationEvidence.com is freely available to all. It can be used to look at single studies or as a database for carrying out larger analyses. We expect its use to include popular articles, student projects, management plans, species recovery plans, research projects and systematic reviews.
Is any information particularly useful?
We welcome summaries of previously published information, and original papers (cases) for the online journal Conservation Evidence on any subject where there has been a management intervention, e.g. activities including habitat restoration, habitat creation, invasive species control, reintroductions and education or integrated conservation development programmes. We are also interested in unsuccessful interventions.
What is the relationship between ConservationEvidence.com and the CEBC?
ConservationEvidence.com provides information for all to use, including CEBC. The CEBC carries out systematic reviews of evidence of the effectiveness of conservation interventions and disseminates results to support decision-making. To see if CEBC have carried out a systematic review on the subject that you are interested in, view: www.cebc.bangor.ac.uk. ConservationEvidence.com should be browsed to see if any relevant cases have been added subsequent to that review.
Who runs ConservationEvidence.com?
The website is run from the Dept. of Zoology, University of Cambridge, England. The site was devised by Prof. William Sutherland and built by Richard Thompson Software Ltd., based on an initial look and feel by Paul Wright.
Who funds ConservationEvidence.com?
The BES provided a start up grant and funding to summarise papers from Journal of Applied Ecology. The funding of the Miriam Rothschild Chair in Conservation Biology enabled the development of the website. NERC has funded adding ornithological summaries and compilation of synopses. Further funding has been provided by Arcadia.
Are there biases in the information?
There are always biases. For example, it is likely that successes are reported more often than failures. It is inevitable that the impacts on some species are more likely to be noted than others. Such potential biases should always be considered when using the ConservationEvidence.com site.
Who submits cases to Conservation Evidence online journal?
Original papers (cases) should be written by, or in conjunction with, those involved in carrying out the management. This could be land managers or wardens involved in running a nature reserve, those involved in species action plans, conservation volunteers or ecologists carrying out experiments.
How should I quote this information in publications?
Conservation Evidence journal papers should be quoted in the form: Badley J. & Allcorn R.I. (2006) The creation of a new saline lagoon as part of a flood defence scheme at RSPB Freiston Shore Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire, England. Conservation Evidence, 3, 99-101. This website also includes summaries of published papers and reports; these should be cited as the original reference.
I am too busy to carry out extensive monitoring. What should I do?
Do the easy bits! The essential components of monitoring can often be carried out quite quickly. For example: if treating a large number of invasive shrubs by cutting and herbicide application, then it might be appropriate to count a proportion of these and see how many have died or regrown. If documenting a reintroduction, give the number of surviving individuals after a given period of time and any indication of reproductive success.
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