Wildlife Trusts

Effective conservation practice requires decisions based on reliable and relevant evidence, but significant gaps in the evidence base exist. Incorporating well-designed tests of the effectiveness of interventions for biodiversity in conservation projects is one of the best ways to scale up the rate of evidence generation. Funders of conservation projects are uniquely positioned to support and incentivize such tests as part of the grant-making process. Using a structured process, as 25 conservation funders and members of Conservation Evidence, we identified means of improving the effectiveness of the work funded through the support of enhanced evidence generation. We identified 11 approaches through which funders can support embedding testing, ranging from encouraging inclusion of a test in the project proposal, to designating separate funds for incorporating a test, to supporting an external testing unit to provide training and advice. The appropriate approaches vary depending on the scale, process, and type of funding. Barriers to supporting testing and potential solutions were discussed, barriers such as a lack of skills to check tests are appropriate and well designed and the additional time needed to develop, implement, and see outcomes of tests and differing types of projects. By encouraging testing of actions as part of conservation practice (where appropriate), funders will ultimately facilitate a stronger evidence base for more effective decision-making and better outcomes for nature and society.

There is increasing concern in many advanced economies about the risks of disruption and crises in agri-food systems. Government departments and non-governmental organisations are working to identify and understand specific risks but struggle to take broad, holistic perspectives and therefore underestimate the potential for civil unrest. In the interests of helping move from understanding to action, we convened a group of experts through a Delphi process to map out potential pathways to acute UK food system crises and identify interventions that would build resilience and sustainability. To this end, we consulted 31 experts, carrying out 15 expert interviews, followed by three surveys and two workshops with a further 16 experts. The experts highlighted the many existing chronic issues creating a tinderbox for an acute risk to lead to a food crisis in the UK. These chronic issues include climate change, poor policy implementation, rising inequality, food supply chain consolidation and the risks from just-in-time supply of food. They voted to include three acute triggers-(a) cyber-attack, (b) a major extreme weather event and (c) a major new international conflict-and described how any combination of these could lead to (d) a UK food availability and/or price shock that could result in widespread fear of unsafe or inadequate food, leading to violence. A total of 7 system-wide interventions were prioritised to help address these pathway elements together and build sustainability, and a further 21 were identified to address elements individually.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the most significant challenges currently faced by humanity. Rainforests exemplify the type of biodiverse habitat that can mitigate both these challenges, but they remain threatened in tropical locations and have almost disappeared elsewhere. This article discusses the forgotten temperate rainforests of the British Isles. It introduces their key characteristics and outlines the challenges that conservation managers face in restoring and re-creating these valuable habitats in the UK. Planting new forest takes land from other uses, notably farming, which can be contentious. Forest restoration is, however, necessary and the challenge of reconciling habitual farming practice with the need to 'climate-proof' our landscape is outlined.

Palaeoecology has the potential to support practical conservation, offering a long-term perspective to issues such as biodiversity loss, environmental restoration and peatland carbon storage. However, achieving a widespread and effective application of palaeoecology within conservation practice requires greater and more efficient collaboration between academics, practitioners and policymakers. Translational palaeoecology offers a methodological approach to achieve collaboration between academia and conservation and produce palaeoecological research that can support and inform conservation action. This paper reports the results of a workshop involving academics undertaking palaeoenvironmental research and conservation practitioners concerning the barriers and practical recommendations for effective research-practice collaboration. The experiences of the participants highlight the benefits of a collaborative approach for producing palaeoecological research that is enriched with experiential and contextual knowledge. Key themes emerging from the workshop include the importance of mutual learning and knowledge exchange, and supporting practitioners to be co-researchers. Practical implication. The workshop outcomes are presented as a framework of practical guidelines for implementing translational palaeoecology. Key recommendations for academics include engaging with practitioner activities as relationship-building opportunities, utilising field visits for knowledge exchange, adopting a knowledge facilitation role or involving a facilitator to support practitioner understanding, using workshops to explore the practical relevance of palaeoecological data and enabling practitioners to communicate palaeo-research findings in their sphere. Key recommendations for practitioners include inviting academics to practitioner meetings, providing tacit and experiential knowledge throughout the process, exploring practitioner- or land-owner-led funding opportunities for translational research and partaking in communication roles for wider dissemination of research.