This study has provided an ideal model to demonstrate the need for greater use of evidence in practical conservation. Considerable sums of money are spent on mitigation measures that have not been proven to work. For example, numerous wire bat gantries have been built in the UK in recent years at huge cost, and we now have evidence that they are ineffective. Not only is this a financial waste, but it may result in irreversible damage to bat populations that are not being protected effectively. It is important that an
evidence-base is built upon to include a range of scenarios and species to allow informed decisions to be made for effective mitigation and successful conservation. This lack of quantitative evidence does not just apply to bat conservation, but is common for all types of wildlife. Conservation decisions are frequently based on anecdotal sources such as personal experience and common sense, and rarely on verifiable scientific evidence (Pullin et al. 2004; Sutherland et al. 2004; Cook et al. 2010), which is both lacking and often inaccessible to practitioners (Fazey et al. 2005). The consequences of conservation actions are also rarely documented, and there is no framework upon which knowledge can develop. Experience-based solutions may not always be inadequate, but can result in the adoption of conservation practices based on myth or incorrect information, with inappropriate and ineffective solutions, as demonstrated in this study. Some other examples include: the winter flooding of grassland which is widely encouraged to benefit wading birds has been found to kill the invertebrates upon which the birds feed (Ausden et al. 2001), a systematic review of the effectiveness of engineered in-stream structures widely used to increase salmonid abundance found the available evidence to be equivocal (Stewart et al. 2009), and a method to monitor tiger populations in India was found to be ineffective despite being used by wildlife managers for thirty years (Karanth
et al. 2003).
There has been a revolution in medical practice and public health over the last few decades, with a shift from expert experience and opinion to an evidence-based practice (Stevens & Milne 1997). This has been achieved through the development of an online database of systematic reviews, and wide dissemination to incorporate medical research into medical practice, and such changes have been suggested for conservation practice (Pullin & Knight 2003; Sutherland et al. 2004). Parallels have been drawn between medical practice and conservation biology, in that they both require effective quick solutions often involving ethical and moral decisions, with a similar relationship between academics and practitioners (Pullin & Knight 2001). Although this change would require a significant shift in the way conservation practice operates, the medical health care model shows that it
can be achieved. Conservation organisations have also recognised the need to make greater use of evidence in their practices, and would be likely to support such changes (Sutherland et al. 2004). Not only would this speed up decision making and lead to more effective conservation, but the ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of conservation measures may also strengthen the case for investment in conservation by funders and policy formers (Sutherland et al. 2004; Ferraro & Pattanayak 2006). One of the major problems faced by practitioners is the accessibility of evidence from the scientific literature, and the time it takes to locate and review this evidence (Fazey et al. 2005; Pullin & Knight 2005). To be successful, an evidence-base must therefore be readily accessible and appropriate to the questions that decision makers need answers to. The journal Conservation Evidence, established in 2004, has set up an online database providing an authoritative source of information, summarising evidence for conservation interventions (www.conservationevidence.com). The project aims to produce synopses of summaries for interventions for every major habitat and taxonomic group. Current synopses cover bees (Dicks et al. 2010), birds (Williams et al. 2013), farmland (Dicks et al. 2013), bats (Berthinussen et al. 2013) and many others are in production. Although evidence is lacking for many common conservation interventions (Sutherland et al. 2013), this provides a framework upon which an evidence-base can be built through both scientific research and the work of conservation practitioners. These kinds of changes are urgently needed to close the gap between science and conservation practice and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of wildlife conservation.
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