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Conservation Research Institute

 

Biography

I started life as a zoologist, did my PhD on the impact of different land uses on tropical bats, and then, as part of my job at Conservation Evidence, have looked at the evidence for the effectiveness of conservation solutions and different ways to synthesize evidence.

Most recently I was a contributing author on the PRISM toolkit for evaluating the outcomes and impacts 
of small/medium-sized conservation projects. My 2017 paper 'Evidence complacency hampers conservation' was used by Lord John Krebs to ask the UK government to ensure the the government's 25 year environment plan would be evidence based.

Prior to this I worked for the RSPB, looking at the evidence base for management options for seabirds in marine protected areas.

I did my PhD at the University of Leeds under the supervision of Professor John Altringham. I worked in collaboration with the Nature Conservation Foundation(www.ncf-india.org/), and focused on changes in bat species composition and functional diversity between different plantation types, forest fragments and riparian corridors in the Western Ghats of India. 

Research

I work on increasing the use of the Conservation Evidence project by conservation practitioners. This involves communication about the benefits of evidence based conservation, promotion of the Conservation Evidence database, and the provision of academic support for practitioners who want to test conservation interventions that can add to the Conservation Evidence project. I work closely with NGOs who want to increase their use of evidence in decision making, and improve their impact evaluation and publication of conservation interventions.

Publications

Key publications: 

Sutherland, W.J. and Wordley, C.F., 2017. Evidence complacency hampers conservation. Nature Ecology & Evolution, ISSN 2397-334X (online) 

Wordley, C.F.R., Mudappa, D., Sankaran, M. and Altringham, J.D., 2017. Bats in the Ghats: Agricultural intensification reduces functional diversity and increases trait filtering in a biodiversity hotspot in India. Biological Conservation 210, 48-55 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.03.026

Wordley, C. F., Sankaran, M., Mudappa, D., & Altringham, J. D. 2015. Landscape scale habitat suitability modelling of bats in the Western Ghats of India: Bats like something in their tea. Biological Conservation, 191, 529-536 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.08.005

Wordley, C.F.R., Foui, E., Mudappa, D., Sankaran, M., Altringham, J. 2014. Acoustic identification of bats in the southern Western Ghats, India. Acta Chiropterologica 16 (1) 213-222 https://doi.org/10.3161/150811014X683408

Wordley, C., Slate, J. and Stapley, J., 2010. Mining online genomic resources in Anolis carolinensis facilitates rapid and inexpensive development of cross-species microsatellite markers for the Anolis lizard genus. Molecular Ecology Resources, (1):126-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2010.02863.x

Research Associate
Dr Claire  Wordley

Contact Details

David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street
Cambridge
CB2 3QZ
01223 (7) 68914

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Departments and institutes: