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The effect of scientific evidence on conservation practitioners' management decisions.


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Walsh, Jessica C 
Dicks, Lynn V 
Sutherland, William J 

Abstract

A major justification of environmental management research is that it helps practitioners, yet previous studies show it is rarely used to inform their decisions. We tested whether conservation practitioners focusing on bird management were willing to use a synopsis of relevant scientific literature to inform their management decisions. This allowed us to examine whether the limited use of scientific information in management is due to a lack of access to the scientific literature or whether it is because practitioners are either not interested or unable to incorporate the research into their decisions. In on-line surveys, we asked 92 conservation managers, predominantly from Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, to provide opinions on 28 management techniques that could be applied to reduce predation on birds. We asked their opinions before and after giving them a summary of the literature about the interventions' effectiveness. We scored the overall effectiveness and certainty of evidence for each intervention through an expert elicitation process-the Delphi method. We used the effectiveness scores to assess the practitioners' level of understanding and awareness of the literature. On average, each survey participant changed their likelihood of using 45.7% of the interventions after reading the synopsis of the evidence. They were more likely to implement effective interventions and avoid ineffective actions, suggesting that their intended future management strategies may be more successful than current practice. More experienced practitioners were less likely to change their management practices than those with less experience, even though they were not more aware of the existing scientific information than less experienced practitioners. The practitioners' willingness to change their management choices when provided with summarized scientific evidence suggests that improved accessibility to scientific information would benefit conservation management outcomes.

Description

Keywords

Delphi method, behavior change, bird predation, cambio conductual, conservación basada en evidencia, conservation synopsis, depredación de aves, especies invasoras, evidence-based conservation, falta de datos de implementación, implementation gap, invasive species, knowledge use, método Delphi, sinopsis de conservación, uso del conocimiento, Animals, Australia, Birds, Choice Behavior, Conservation of Natural Resources, Decision Making, New Zealand, United Kingdom

Journal Title

Conserv Biol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0888-8892
1523-1739

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley

Rights

Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales
Sponsorship
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/K015419/1)
W.J.S. is funded by Arcadia, and L.V.D. is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK (Grant code NE/K015419/1).