ICCB 2013 Program - Society for Conservation Biology

Symposium: Still ‘Shooting in the Dark’ Policy Insights from the Frontiers of Evidence-based
Conservation. Session II
Room 308
Tuesday, July 23, 10:30 to 12:30
Organizer(s): Louise Glew, World Wildlife Fund; Michael B. Mascia, World Wildlife Fund
Tuesday
Evidence-based policy and practice has emerged as a major focus of biodiversity conservation research in the past decade. Scholars
and practitioners increasingly recognize that without empirical evidence, decisions on where and how to conserve biodiversity
constitute a ‘shot in the dark’. The nascent evidence base emerging from quasi-experimental impact evaluation, which allows
scholars to make causal inferences about the ecological and social impacts of conservation interventions, has generated important
insights for conservation practice and overturned long-held conventional wisdom. The evidence derived from these pioneering
impact evaluation studies remains limited in scope, however, with considerable mismatch between the insights generated and the
needs of policymakers. Addressing this disparity requires future generations of evaluative studies to advance six methodological
‘frontiers’: diversifying the range of outcome metrics; documenting variation in impact; linking interventions to impact; exploring
trade-offs and synergies between outcomes; comparing the effectiveness of interventions; and translating evidence into policy
and practice. This session brings together scholars and practitioners to explore these six frontiers across a range of interventions,
biomes and sociopolitical contexts to highlight the potential and the limits of impact evaluation in conservation, in order to
catalyze policy-relevant research and further advance conservation policy.
10:30 Decentralization & Development-Environment Tradeoffs: federal versus state conservation choice & impacts on
Amazonian deforestation
Alex Pfaff, Duke University
10:45 Ecological, social, and demographic impacts of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon
Christoph Nolte, University of Michigan
11:00 Conserving rivers and streams: Evaluating long and short-term outcomes of a freshwater small grants program in the
Southeast US
Michele Thieme, World Wildlife Fund
11:15 Making the most of the data: challenges of collaborative NGO data management and analysis for impact evaluation
in a remote MPA network in Indonesia
Gabby N. Ahmadia, World Wildlife Fund
11:30 Evidence and evaluation in conservation program design: USAID’s experience
Diane Russell, USAID
11:45 Evidence-based conservation: integrating scientific insights into conservation practice
Andrew Pullin, Bangor University
Open discussion period follows from 12:00 to 12:30
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Symposium: Integrating Systems, Disciplines and Stakeholders for More Effective
Conservation Policies - From Climate Change to Endangered Species Restoration. Session II
Room 309
Tuesday, July 23, 10:30 to 12:30
Organizer(s): John Fitzgerald, J.D., Counsel to SCB
In order to conserve biodiversity and to have any chance that SCB will succeed in its mission, policies grounded in and tested by
science and practice must be in place to ensure and reward proper management of resources and human actions that affect them.
Decision-makers must draw from all relevant sciences and disciplines to form and adapt these rules and must include most or all
stakeholders in forming these to ensure sufficient compliance. We are at a crossroads in modern society at which older policies
or older enforcement modes are no longer adequate to ensure regional or global conservation, but the roots of reform can be
found within our legal and administrative systems so that we need not start from scratch. This symposium will draw from leading
experts in climate and earth science, ecological and energy economics, and cutting edge domestic and international law to identify
both the roots of reform and the new growth that must be fostered across the legal and governmental systems of the world by
using and serving stakeholders, not only as recipients but as drivers.
* Please note unique talk lengths in this symposium.
10:30-10:35 Brief Introduction to Panel 2
John M. Fitzgerald, Counsel to SCB
10:35-10:50 The Endangered Species Act -- Still Vigorous at 40--The State of the ESA on its 40th Anniversary and
Prospects for Progress
Dan Rolhf, Lewis and Clark Law School
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