Training Resources

Introduction

We would like to support you in your pursuit for effective solutions. All of our training material will be available online. This page includes helpful links for those interested in evidence-based conservation. Visit us regularly, read our blog, follow our social media accounts [Facebook \ Twitter] and subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date.

Share what you’ve learned

We hope that you will support us in our aim to improve decisions in conservation by sharing what you have experienced here, by training your colleagues and telling others about the Conservation Evidence project. If you have specific feedback or questions about our resources then please fill in this form.

User training

This 25 minute video covers the basics of why and how to use evidence in conservation, the Conservation Evidence project, and generating your own evidence.

Monitoring and evaluation

If you are interested in evaluating your actions to provide useful evidence on what works and what doesn't, we would recommend that you check out the PRISM toolkit.

PRISM is a toolkit that aims to support small/medium-sized conservation projects to effectively evaluate the outcomes and impacts of their work.

The toolkit has been developed by a collaboration of several conservation NGOs with additional input from scientists and practitioners from across the conservation sector.

It can be found at https://conservationevaluation.org/

Another useful resource is The Conservation Handbook, which has information on ecological monitoring techniques.

 

Author training

These videos will arm you with essential skills for producing a synopsis of evidence in the style of Conservation Evidence, including how to find evidence, summarise evidence and assess evidence.

N.B. These were recorded as part of our author training event in May 2017 held at the University of Cambridge in the David Attenborough Building. Since then we have searched many more literature sources, produced numerous more synopses and developed the website.

1. Subject-wide Evidence Synthesis: finding, summarising, and assessing evidence

This video provides a basic overview of the process of Subject-wide Evidence Synthesis used to produce a synopsis of evidence for Conservation Evidence.

2. What are interventions?

This video explores what a conservation intervention (or 'action') is, the kinds of study designs that test interventions and when is an experiment a controlled study?

3. How to find evidence for a Subject-wide Evidence Synthesis

This video explores how to find evidence relevant to Conservation Evidence for our method of Subject-wide Evidence Synthesis. See what we’ve already searched here.

4a. How to summarise evidence

This video explores how to summarise evidence in the style of Conservation Evidence. This video offers advice on how to effectively communicate overall results from complex study designs.

4b. How to write in plain English

This video gives top tips on how to write in plain English and make your work easier to understand. Dr Lynn Dicks draws on her experience of being a science writer.

 

5. How to use experts to assess evidence

This video explores how to use experts to assess evidence. The Delphi technique is demonstrated. This is the same method used for the assessments of evidence for What Works in Conservation.

 

Training others to use Conservation Evidence

This more informal video gives some hints and tips for training others to use Conservation Evidence. Watch out for the baby bats!

What Works 2021 cover

What Works in Conservation

What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

More about What Works in Conservation

Download free PDF or purchase
The Conservation Evidence Journal

The Conservation Evidence Journal

An online, free to publish in, open-access journal publishing results from research and projects that test the effectiveness of conservation actions.

Read the latest volume: Volume 21

Go to the CE Journal

Discover more on our blog

Our blog contains the latest news and updates from the Conservation Evidence team, the Conservation Evidence Journal, and our global partners in evidence-based conservation.


Who uses Conservation Evidence?

Meet some of the evidence champions

Endangered Landscape ProgrammeRed List Champion - Arc Kent Wildlife Trust The Rufford Foundation Save the Frogs - Ghana Mauritian Wildlife Supporting Conservation Leaders
Sustainability Dashboard National Biodiversity Network Frog Life The international journey of Conservation - Oryx Cool Farm Alliance UNEP AWFA Bat Conservation InternationalPeople trust for endangered species Vincet Wildlife Trust