Evidence-informed Conservation
We are an affiliated center with the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) and the first of its kind in the United States. We are an organizing hub for evidence synthesis efforts in the region, linking together scientists, practitioners, policymakers, local community leaders, and educators across these sectors to generate, assess, and use evidence for different needs. We strive to help organizations assess their needs for evidence, assess existing knowledge, and apply evidence to decisions.
In today’s world, we are faced with profound environmental crises, a growing need to manage our planet sustainably, and an endless supply of information at the touch of a fingertip. How can we best evaluate and synthesize our vast knowledge to identify the best practices for decision-makers?
Decision-makers require credible and salient evidence on which approaches are more likely to be effective for conservation and sustainability in complex human-nature systems. In order to pursue this type of evidence-informed practice, systematic evidence synthesis (SES) methods for evaluating evidence and effectiveness are critically needed.
As one of the seven official Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) centers globally, we strive to build capacity and improve evidence literacy through training, exchange, and resources to support practice.
We envision a future where evidence-informed decision-making is a standard of practice for conservation and the environmental field more broadly, in the United States and beyond.
At the CBC, we conduct evidence syntheses to support robust practice and policy development with a wide range of partners across the conservation sector. We follow robust guidelines to produce transparent and reproducible syntheses—offering a reliable and credible source of evidence. We have wide-ranging topical expertise including in the biological, ecological, and social sciences—as well significant experience in using systems approaches.
We aim to build and provide tools for conducting evidence syntheses—from contributing to guidelines and resources with the wider CEE Network, to hosting open access software platforms. In particular, we focus on:
You can read more about our projects and contact us about your interests.
In all our approaches to conservation, we aim to bring strong evidence, from multiple sources of knowledge and perspectives, to bear on complex conservation problems and collaborate on solutions that are sustainable, equitable, and just.
In many areas of policy, including environmental management and conservation, the need for robust, reliable, and credible evidence in order to make decisions is evident. Many of the actions needed in conservation and environmental management will be novel and/or expensive, not to mention complex - involving multiple stakeholders and perspectives. It is vital that these actions are informed by reliable syntheses of the best available and relevant evidence. Otherwise, we risk making decisions based on biased or incomplete information which may result in suboptimal or even unintended, negative impacts.
Conservation and sustainability challenges affect all of humanity, thus it is critically important that the evidence used reflects a diversity of perspectives and sources. What qualifies as “evidence” can vary depending on the level of uncertainty and risk inherent in the decision under consideration. It is important to examine possible sources of bias, and variations in research conduct across different sources of evidence to understand how it can reliably inform decisions.
Systematic evidence syntheses (SES) utilize transparent and unbiased methods to bring together knowledge to evaluate impact of interventions on desired outcomes. SES methods are widely used across many sectors of society where science can inform decision-making and is recognized as a high quality standard for collating, assessing, and synthesizing knowledge. For SES to be credible and reliable, their conduct must be transparently reported and meet certain standards. For example, standards include clear reporting of how evidence was located and assessed, and examining possible sources of bias both in the evidence and in the way the synthesis is conducted. In so doing, the goal is to provide an explicit level of confidence and traceability in the findings to the end-user.
SES methods include systematic maps and systematic reviews, as well as systematic approaches to rapid evidence syntheses. More information on types of syntheses, their characteristics, and their application, can be found at the European Union’s EKLIPSE mechanism.
We collaborate with a diversity of partners across the world on conservation, environmental, and development topics. We emphasize a strong co-development process with our partners for all of our evidence synthesis projects and guidance. Past and ongoing projects include:
We offer hands-on training and resources on conducting and using evidence syntheses through a number of different platforms, including in-person workshops, expert consultancies, studios, and online formats. Our trainings aim to:
For more hands-on training, please contact us with your inquiries.
Colandr is a web-based, open access platform for conducting evidence reviews. Colandr can be used by collaborative teams of any size and provides an organizational structure to manage information throughout the entire evidence review process. Colandr utilizes machine learning and natural language processing approaches to improve the efficiency of the synthesis process.
The rate of production of new scientific evidence is increasing exponentially, making it hard to review all of this new information. The Evidence Synthesis Technology Methods Group is an informal association of researchers and decision-makers with an interest in the use and development of technology in evidence syntheses (such as systematic reviews and maps).
CBC scientists are deeply engaged in efforts to improve understanding of the impacts of conservation activities through the use of evidence synthesis. We have produced a number of publications on aspects of the process and how to operationalize synthesis for conservation and environmental decision-making.
At the CBC, we engage and collaborate with partners on a wide range of evidence synthesis projects including:
If you are interested in learning more about evidence synthesis approaches, ongoing projects, trainings, or would like to inquire about collaboration opportunities, please contact the Evidence Initiative Coordinator at the CBC: Samantha Cheng.