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 (pp. 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 is compiled particularly for those working to support or protect biodiversity, such as land managers, conservationists, farmers, policymakers, researchers, advisors or consultants. You may also be a student, teacher or someone who wants to find out more about biodiversity conservation.
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 Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation?
Alongside the Conservation Evidence project, the Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation (www.cebc.bangor.ac.uk) and the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (www.environmentalevidence.org) carry out and disseminate systematic reviews on the effectiveness of particular conservation interventions. Systematic reviews are detailed evaluations of the evidence for specific policy-relevant questions. They usually weight or value individual studies according to their rigour. These systematic reviews are included on the Conservation Evidence database.
Who runs ConservationEvidence.com?
The website is run from the Department 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.
Conservation Evidence synopses should be quoated in the form: Dicks L.V., Showler D.A. & Sutherland W.J. (2010) Bee Conservation: Evidence for the effects of interventions. Synopses of Conservation Evidence. www.ConservationEvidence.com. Date accessed:
This website also includes summaries of other jornal 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.
What kind of evidence is included by Conservation Evidence?
The criteria for inclusion of studies in the Conservation Evidence database are as follows:
- There must have been an intervention that conservationists would do
- Its effects must have been monitored quantitatively
We do not include evidence relating to methods of monitoring, basic species ecology or threats to biodiversity.
What is an intervention?
A conservation intervention is anything you might do to manage, protect, enhance or restore biodiversity. Interventions include types of habitat or species management, methods of species or site protection, methods of controlling invasive species, species reintroduction, captive breeding, legislation and education. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Conservation Actions Classification Scheme provides an overview of possible types of intervention.
|