Reliable forest carbon monitoring – systematic reviews as a tool for validating the knowledge base

Petrokofsky, Gillian; Holmgren, Peter; Brown, Nicholas D.

doi:10.1505/ifor.13.1.56

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In conservation, evidence-based practice was first mentioned 15 years ago (Sutherland, 2000; Pullin and Knight, 2001). Today, the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (www.environmentalevidence.org) fosters the creation of systematic reviews to collate the strongest possible evidence (Petrokofsky et al , 2011; Bowler et al , 2012; Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, 2013, see also Journal for Environmental Evidence ), together with the Conservation Evidence (www.conservationevidence.org), which focuses on the development of summaries and guidelines, and the communication of evidence to practitioners (Sutherland et al , 2012; Dicks et al , 2014).…”

Section: In a Nutshellmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An evidence assessment tool for ecosystem services and conservation studies

Mupepele

Walsh

Sutherland

et al. 2014

Preprint

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Reliability of scienti c ndings is important, especially if they directly impact decision making, such as in environmental management. In the s, assessments of reliability in the medical eld resulted in the development of evidence-based practice. Ten years later, evidence-based practice was translated into conservation, but so far no guidelines exist on how to assess the evidence of individual studies. Assessing the evidence of individual studies is essential to appropriately identify and summarize the con dence in research ndings. We develop a tool to assess the strength of evidence of ecosystem services and conservation studies. is tool consists of ( ) a hierarchy of evidence, based on the experimental design of studies and ( ) a critical-appraisal checklist that identi es the quality of research implementation. e application is illustrated with examples and we suggest further steps required to move towards more evidence-based environmental management. In a nutshell• Human's life depends on nature, biodiversity and their related ecosystem services and it is essential to manage natural ecosystems in a sustainable way.• Decisions taken in the context of environmental management need to be based on sound knowledge and reliable information.• We introduce an evidence assessment tool to identify the reliability of environmental research.• is evidence assessment tool is based on a hierarchical ranking of study designs and a study quality checklist.• Identifying the reliability of environmental research is the rst step towards more e ective decision making.. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/010140 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Oct. 8, 2014; Keywords: governance -evidence-based practice -evidence hierarchymanagement -quality checklist -quanti cation -reliability -rigour -valuation Alongside these ongoing a empts we identify the need for a clear hierarchical ranking of study designs used in ecosystem services and conservation in order to evaluate available information. Here we rst discuss the terminology of . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/010140 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Oct. 8, 2014; evidence-based practice, to ensure that scientists and practitioner can communicate e ectively across the disciplines and backgrounds. Next, we introduce a new evidence hierarchy that ranks scienti c study designs in ecosystem services and conservation, extending a previous proposal by Pullin and Knight ( ). A quality checklist will support the appraisal of the study design and increase reproducibility.Finally, we illustrate the application of the tool with case studies, and specify the relevance of evidence-based practice for di erent user groups. Current use of evidence-based practice in envir...

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Section: In a Nutshellmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pioneered in medicine, the evidence-based concept today is used by several other disciplines, e.g. justice (www.campbellcollaboration.org), conservation science (Pullin and Knight, 2001, 2009; Sutherland et al , 2004) or forestry (Binkley and Menyailo, 2005; Petrokofsky et al , 2011).…”

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An evidence assessment tool for ecosystem services and conservation studies

Mupepele

Walsh

Sutherland

et al. 2014

Preprint

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“…Eff orts to increase reliance on evidence while eschewing overt political infl uence in policy making have spread to most development sectors over the past 15 years, including forestry. Advocates in conservation have led the way Knight 2001, 2003;Sutherland et al 2004), but the trend has expanded to include forestry more generally (CIFOR 2016;Petrokofsky et al 2011). Indeed, the forest sector has seen some of the most signifi cant movement within international development in terms of indicator formulation even as actual use of these indicators has remained lacking (Grainger 2012).…”

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A Crystal Ball for Forests?: Analyzing the Social-Ecological Impacts of Forest Conservation and Management over the Long Term

Miller¹,

Rana²,

Wahlén³

2017

Environment and Society

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Citizens, governments, and donors are increasingly demanding better evidence on the eff ectiveness of development policies and programs. Eff orts to ensure such accountability in the forest sector confront the challenge that the results may take years, even decades, to materialize, while forest-related interventions usually last only a short period. Th is article reviews the broad interdisciplinary literature assessing forest conservation and management impacts on biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and poverty alleviation in developing countries. It emphasizes the importance of indicators and identifi es disconnects between a rapidly growing body of research based on quasi-experimental designs and studies taking a more critical, ethnographic approach. Th e article also highlights a relative lack of attention on longer-term impacts in both of these areas of scholarship. We conclude by exploring research frontiers in the assessment of the impacts of forest-related interventions with long incubation periods, notably the development of predictive proxy indicators (PPIs).Ⅲ

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“…Despite this criticism, evidence-based practice is successfully implemented and applied in medicine, today. The concept is also mentioned in other areas, including justice (www.campbellcollaboration.org), economics (Reiss, 2004) and environmental science such as conservation (Pullin and Knight, 2001, 2009; Sutherland et al ., 2004) or forestry (Binkley and Menyailo, 2005; Petrokofsky et al ., 2011).…”

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A plea for evidence in ecosystem service science: a framework and its application

Mupepele

Dormann

2014

Preprint

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The ecosystem service concept is at the interface of ecology, economics and politcs, with scientific results rapidly translated into management or political action. This emphasises the importance of reliable recommendations provided by scientist. We propose to use evidence-based practice in ecosystem service science in order to evaluate and improve the reliability of scientific statements. For this purpose, we introduce a level-of-evidence scale ranking study designs (e.g. review, case-control, descriptive) in combination with a study quality checklist. For illustration, the concept was directly applied to 12 case studies. We also review criticisms levered against evidence-based practice and how it applies to ecosystem services science. We further discuss who should use the evidence-based concept and suggest important next steps, with a focus on the development of guidelines for methods used in ecosystem service assessments.

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Reliable forest carbon monitoring – systematic reviews as a tool for validating the knowledge base

Cited by 8 publications

References 28 publications

An evidence assessment tool for ecosystem services and conservation studies

An evidence assessment tool for ecosystem services and conservation studies

A Crystal Ball for Forests?: Analyzing the Social-Ecological Impacts of Forest Conservation and Management over the Long Term

A plea for evidence in ecosystem service science: a framework and its application

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