Bridging research and practice in conservation

Calls for biodiversity conservation practice to be more evidence based are growing, and we agree evidence use in conservation practice needs improvement. However, evidence-based conservation will not be realized without improved access to evidence. In medicine, unlike in conservation, a well-established and well-funded layer of intermediary individuals and organizations engage with medical practitioners, synthesize primary research relevant to decision making, and make evidence easily accessible. These intermediaries prepare targeted evidence summaries and distribute them to practitioners faced with time-sensitive and value-laden decisions. To be effective, these intermediaries, who we refer to as evidence bridges, should identify research topics based on the priorities of practitioners; synthesize evidence; prepare and distribute easy-to-find and easy-to-use evidence summaries; and develop and maintain networks of connections with researchers and practitioners. Based on a review of the literature regarding evidence intermediaries in conservation and environmental management, as well as an anonymous questionnaire searching for such organizations, we found few intermediaries that met all these criteria. Few evidence bridges that do exist are unable to reach most conservation practitioners, which include resource managers in government and industry, conservation organizations, and farmers and other private landowners. We argue that the lack of evidence bridges from research to practitioners contributes to evidence complacency and limits the use of evidence in conservation action. Nevertheless, several existing organizations help reduce the gap between evidence and practice and could serve as a foundation for building additional components of evidence bridges in conservation. Although evidence bridges need expertise in research and evidence synthesis, they also require expertise in identifying and communicating with the community of practitioners most in need of clear and concise syntheses of evidence. Article Impact Statement: Evidence-based conservation will not be realized without improved access to evidence. We call for intermediary evidence bridges.     

The challenge of biased evidence in conservation

Efforts to tackle the current biodiversity crisis need to be as efficient and effective as possible given chronic underfunding. To inform decision-makers of the most effective conservation actions, it is important to identify biases and gaps in the conservation literature to prioritize future evidence generation. We used the Conservation Evidence database to assess the state of the global literature that tests conservation actions for amphibians and birds. For the studies in the database, we investigated their spatial and taxonomic extent and distribution across biomes, effectiveness metrics, and study designs. Studies were heavily concentrated in Western Europe and North America for birds and particularly for amphibians, and temperate forest and grassland biomes were highly represented relative to their percentage of land coverage. Studies that used the most reliable study designs—before-after control-impact and randomized controlled trials—were the most geographically restricted and scarce in the evidence base. There were negative spatial relationships between the numbers of studies and the numbers of threatened and data-deficient species worldwide. Taxonomic biases and gaps were apparent for amphibians and birds—some entire orders were absent from the evidence base—whereas others were poorly represented relative to the proportion of threatened species they contained. Metrics used to evaluate effectiveness of conservation actions were often inconsistent between studies, potentially making them less directly comparable and evidence synthesis more difficult. Testing conservation actions on threatened species outside Western Europe, North America, and Australasia should be prioritized. Standardizing metrics and improving the rigor of study designs used to test conservation actions would also improve the quality of the evidence base for synthesis and decision-making.     

Motivations for the use and consumption of wildlife products

The dominant approach to combating the illegal wildlife trade has traditionally been to restrict the supply of wildlife products. Yet conservationists increasingly recognize the importance of implementing demand-side interventions that target the end consumers in the trade chain. Their aim is to curb the consumption of wildlife or shift consumption to more sustainable alternatives. However, there are still considerable knowledge gaps in understanding of the diversity of consumer motivations in the context of illegal wildlife trade, which includes hundreds of thousands of species, different uses, and diverse contexts. Based on consultation with multiple experts from a diversity of backgrounds, nationalities, and focal taxa, we developed a typology of common motivations held by wildlife consumers that can be used to inform conservation interventions. We identified 5 main motivational categories for wildlife use: experiential, social, functional, financial, and spiritual, each containing subcategories. This framework is intended to facilitate the segmentation of consumers based on psychographics and allow the tailoring of interventions—whether behavior change campaigns, enforcement efforts, or incentive programs—to the specific context in which they will be used. Underlining the importance of consumer research and collaborating with local actors is an important step toward promoting a more systematic approach to the design of demand reduction interventions.     

Measuring values for environmental resources under uncertainty

The relationship between conventional Hicksian measures of the benefits from changes in environmental amenities under certainty, and corresponding measures of valuation when the conditions of access to an uncertain environmental resource are changed, is considered. The analysis utilizes a contingent commodity framework with the assumption of state-dependent preferences. The findings suggest that the valuation of these changes will depend upon the availability of fair markets for diversifying risk. Moreover, conventional measures of compensating or equivalent surplus will not necessarily bound the individual's valuation of a change in access to an uncertain environmental resource.     

Whither copper prices? : Golden years or a return to bust?

By comparing the 1964–1973 period of exceptional strength in the copper price with current market conditions, a more informed judgement can be made about the longevity of the current boom in the copper price. Preconditions for an extended period of strong real prices appear to be in place, while there are few signs of an imminent price collapse.     

Carbon Stocks and Projections on Public Forestlands in the United States, 1952–2040

Approximately 37% of forestlands in the conterminous United States are publicly owned; they represent a substantial area of potential carbon sequestration in US forests and in forest products. However, large areas of public forestlands traditionally have been less intensively inventoried than privately owned forests. Thus, less information is available about their role as carbon sinks. We present estimates of carbon budgets on public forestlands of the 48 conterminous states, along with a discussion of the assumptions necessary to make such estimates. The forest carbon budget simulation model, FORCARB2, makes estimates for US forests primarily based on inventory data. We discuss methods to develop consistent carbon budget estimates from inventory data at varying levels of detail. Total carbon stored on public forestlands in the conterminous US increased from 16.3 Gt in 1953 to the present total of 19.5 Gt, while area increased from 87.1 million hactares to 92.1 million hactares. At the same time the proportion of carbon on public forestlands relative to all forests increased from 35% to 37%. Projections for the next 40 years depend on scenarios of management influences on growth and harvest.This article was written and prepared by US Government employees on official time, and it is therefore in the public domain and not subject to copyright.     

Multiple Benefits of Carbon-Friendly Agricultural Practices: Empirical Assessment of Conservation Tillage

This study empirically estimates the multiple benefits of a subsidy policy that would offer payments to farmers in return for the adoption of conservation tillage, and compares the outcomes of alternative targeting designs for such a policy. The least-cost incentive payment policy schemes are simulated for the State of Iowa by using the data for roughly 12,000 National Resource Inventory (NRI) points. We use an economic conservation tillage adoption model to evaluate the costs of adoption and a physical process simulation model (EPIC) to estimate the environmental benefits due to adoption at each of the NRI points.Two targeting options are considered. We assess the costs and environmental consequences of a practice-based policy instrument (which maximizes the acres of land in conservation tillage, regardless of its level of environmental benefits) and contrast it to a performance-based instrument (which yields the highest amount of environmental benefits per dollar spent). Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, reduction of soil erosion by wind and water, and the reduction in nitrogen runoff are considered as possible targets for the performance-based instruments. We find that the practice-based instrument provides high proportions of the four benefits relative to the policies that target the benefits directly, especially at the higher policy budget levels. Similarly, we estimate that targeting one of the four benefits individually provides high percentages of the other benefits as compared with the amounts of the benefits obtainable if they were targeted directly.     

Ecological half-life of 137Cs in plants associated with a contaminated stream

Ecological half-life (Te) is a useful measure for studying the long-term decline of contaminants, such as radionuclides, in natural systems. The current investigation determined levels of radiocesium (137Cs) in two aquatic (Polygonum punctatum, Sagittaria latifolia) and three terrestrial (Alnus serrulata, Myrica cerifera, Salix nigra) plant species from a contaminated stream and floodplain on the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site. Current 137Cs levels in plants were used in conjunction with historical data to determine Te of 137Cs in each species. Median concentrations of 137Cs were highest in S. latifolia (0.84 Bq g(-1)) and lowest in M. cerifera (0.10 Bq g(-1)). Te's ranged from 4.85 yr in M. cerifera to 8.35 yr in S. nigra, both terrestrial species. Te's for all aquatic (6.30 yr) and all terrestrial (5.87) species combined were very similar. The Te's of the two aquatic primary producers (P. punctatum and S. latifolia) in the Steel Creek ecosystem were somewhat longer than Te values previously reported for some consumers from this ecosystem.     

Frequency distributions of 137Cs in fish and mammal populations

We collected fish and mammals in several radioactively contaminated locations in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and analyzed them for 137Cs content. Frequency distributions were built for populations of channel catfish, yellow-necked mice and bank voles. We combined our data with similar data from several other studies to demonstrate the relationship between the standard deviations and means of 137Cs of fish and mammal populations. The frequency distributions of 137Cs in populations of fish and mammals are not normal, as indicated by the strong relationship between standard deviation and mean. Distributions for mammals are more skewed than those for fish. Fish and mammals probably use their environments in fundamentally different ways. The highest concentrations and thus greatest risks are therefore confined to relatively few individuals in each population.