Principles for the production of evidence‐based guidance for conservation actions

Abstract

Many types of guidance documents inform conservation by providing practical recommendations for the management of species and habitats. To ensure effective decisions are made, such guidance should be based upon relevant and up‐to‐date evidence. We reviewed conservation guidance for mitigation and management of species and habitats in the United Kingdom and Ireland, identifying 301 examples produced by over 50 organizations. Of these, only 29% provided a reference list, of which only 32% provided reference(s) relevant to justify the recommended actions (9% of the total). Furthermore, even this guidance was often outdated, lacked a methodology for production, or did not highlight uncertainty in the key evidence that supported the recommendations. These deficiencies can lead to misguided and ineffective conservation practices, policies, and decisions, and a waste of resources. Based on this review and co‐design by experts from 14 organizations, we present a set of principles for ensuring sufficient and relevant evidence is transparently incorporated into future conservation guidance. Producing evidence‐based guidance in line with these principles would enable more effective conservation outcomes.

Principles for using evidence to improve biodiversity impact mitigation by business

“…Actions taken by business are often informed by guidance documents, consultants (many of which rely on guidance themselves) or adherence to standards, certifications, principles or policy (White et al in review). However, reviews of guidance documents for management and mitigation in the UK and Ireland have identified poor use of scientific evidence to support recommendations: many documents commonly used for development projects are out-of-date, based on circular referencing of other guidance publications, and show limited use of primary empirical literature to support claims (Hunter et al 2021;Downey et al 2022). These results are of particular concern given Europe's comparatively strong research and information base, regulations and exceptional biodiversity monitoring, combined with relatively low species diversity compared to many other regions, which should mean that evidence can be more easily put into practice in development projects (Moussy et al 2022).…”

“…A review of guidance documents in the UK and Ireland identified that only 9% of documents provided a reference to justify the actions that were recommended (Downey et al, 2022). For the UK housing sector, 56% of mitigation actions were justified by citing guidance documents, but <10% of the cited texts within these guidance documents looked at evidence of effectiveness.…”

“…Creating the necessary culture may also benefit from providing capacity for staff to assess evidence, training programmes, as well as creating responsibilities and buy-in at the senior leadership level to drive change across the organisation (Frick et al, 2022).…”

Co‐developing guidance for conservation: An example for seabirds in the North‐East Atlantic in the face of climate change impacts

“…Guidance documents vary in terms of scope and structure but can be defined as “an authoritative source of information and recommendations with the objective of informing… decisions and actions” (Downey et al, 2022). Concise, accessible and robust guidance can increase the use of empirical evidence in decision‐making, and guidance documents can, and should, be a key part of the conservation decision‐making landscape (Turner et al, 2019; Walsh et al, 2019).…”

“…Concise, accessible and robust guidance can increase the use of empirical evidence in decision‐making, and guidance documents can, and should, be a key part of the conservation decision‐making landscape (Turner et al, 2019; Walsh et al, 2019). Guidance can also provide a critical overview of the available evidence and knowledge gaps, sometimes highlighting context‐specific implementation issues and uncertainties (Downey et al, 2022). The level of detail, context, and scale of guidance can be very flexible and depends greatly on its intended use.…”