Supporting frontline workers in the biodiversity crisis by empowering and enabling practitioners to embrace conservation evidence
摘要
Biodiversity conservation involves a broad spectrum of activities, from research to reveal mechanisms of population decline, to policy that mobilizes this information to guide practice, to hands-on action. Scientists rarely implement conservation actions alone. Instead, their work supports conservation practitioners—a broad group of decision-makers, managers, and stewards who are the essential frontline workers of biodiversity conservation. Here we discuss three necessary actions scientists can take to better support conservation practitioners in making decisions that benefit biodiversity and people. These are: (1) Build the evidence base by working with and across diverse knowledge systems; (2) Synthesize evidence to provide accessible and reliable guidance and decision-support tools for practitioners; and (3) Create and facilitate a culture of evidence use that transcends individuals and institutions to empower and enable practitioners to make evidence-informed decisions. Underpinning each of these actions are a series of principles that provide tangible guidance. We present these ideas from our position as scientists with an interest in doing conservation-relevant work, some of whom wear scientist-practitioner hats. We suggest that without progress on all three actions, durable solutions are unlikely and biodiversity loss will continue. Our intended audience is primarily scientists seeking to better support the many conservation practitioners tasked with reversing biodiversity declines around the globe.