At Journal of Applied Ecology, we’ve put together this Virtual Issue on Conservation evidence, decision making and the role of scientific publications to complement a one-day symposium on Conservation Evidence: informing decision making being held today by the British Ecological Society’s Conservation Special Interest Group and the Field Studies Council.

All 16 papers are free to access and are brought together in an Editorial introduction by Nathalie Pettorelli. An excerpt is below.
Read the full editorial and access the papers here.

With this Virtual Issue, the aim is to illustrate the plethora of opportunities for researchers to contribute to strengthening an evidence-based approach to environmental management without compromising on the quality and generality of their produced research. While tackling pressing issues such as invasive alien species management or land use optimization for species conservation under climate change, this selection of contributions also highlights the challenges associated with the production of high-quality evidence, and demonstrates how developments in data analysis approaches are intrinsically linked to the identification of future data collection priorities. Finally, this compilation exemplifies how the successful pathways from research to implementation likely involves a coordinated use of various skills drawn from a distinctively diverse array of backgrounds, brought together by a common willingness to overcome traditional barriers to communication and collaboration for the benefit of environmental management. Altogether, the hope is that this Virtual Issue will be of interest to a variety of stakeholders engaging in the challenge to conciliate biodiversity conservation and human development in a changing world.