Creating testable questions in practical conservation: a process and 100 questions

Authors: William J Sutherland, Jake M Robinson, David C Aldridge, Tim Alamenciak, Matthew Armes, Nina Baranduin, Andrew J Bladon, Martin F Breed, Nicki Dyas, Chris S Elphick, Richard A Griffiths, Jonny Hughes, Beccy Middleton, Nick A Littlewood, Roger Mitchell, William H Morgan, Roy Mosley, Silviu O Petrovan, Kit Prendergast, Euan G Ritchie, Hugh Raven, Rebecca K Smith, Sarah H Watts, and Ann Thornton

Published in: Conservation Evidence

Summary

It is now clear that the routine embedding of experiments into conservation practice is essential for creating reasonably comprehensive evidence of the effectiveness of actions. However, an important barrier is the stage of identifying testable questions that are both useful but also realistic to carry out without a major research project. We identified approaches for generating such suitable questions. A team of 24 participants crowdsourced suggestions, resulting in a list of a hundred possible tests of actions.

Sutherland WJ, Robinson JM, Aldridge DC, Alamenciak T, Armes M, Baranduin N, Bladon AJ, Breed MF, Dyas N, Elphick CS, Griffiths RA, Hughes J, Middleton B, Littlewood NA, Mitchell R, Morgan WH, Mosley R, Petrovan SO, Prendergast K, Ritchie EG, Raven H, Smith RK, Watts SH & Thornton A (2022) EDITORIAL Creating testable questions in practical conservation: a process and 100 questions. Conservation Evidence PDF DOI