Conservation Evidence

Overview

Conservation has achieved remarkable successes, yet many resources continue to be wasted on actions without clear evidence of impact.

The Conservation Evidence group has recognised the urgent need for transformative change and have pioneered a novel, cost-effective, industrial-scale approach to synthesising scientific evidence on the effectiveness of conservation actions.

Building the Evidence Base for Conservation

By 2026, the project had assessed almost 4,000 conservation actions, creating the world's largest freely accessible database on conservation effectiveness: the Conservation Evidence Database.

This work has been developed in collaboration with more than 600 practitioners, policymakers, funders and researchers, and over 250 partner organisations worldwide.

Global Impact

Conservation Evidence has now been used by more than 1.8 million people globally and cited in over 1,000 international policy documents. It is helping transform conservation into a more effective, evidence-driven field.

Over 675 synopsis authors, advisors and assessors from across the globe have contributed to the evidence database and the group has worked with over 250 additional partners to identify needs and co-design, test, disseminate and ensure adoption of solutions (the Evidence Toolkit) to embed evidence use and generation in practice.

In 2026, the team convened a major conference in Cambridge bringing together more than 500 UK conservation leaders, funders and scientists to strengthen the use of evidence in conservation practice.

Supporting Evidence-Led Conservation

This growing movement is supported through the global Evidence Champion Programme — a network of practitioner and funder organisations committed to using and generating evidence in their work.

Champions receive tailored training, practical support and opportunities for closer collaboration with Conservation Evidence and its champion network, helping build a culture where conservation decisions are guided by the best available evidence and resources achieve the greatest possible impact for nature.

Recognition

“Natural England views Conservation Evidence as an important go-to source of evidence to guide action by ourselves and others for the management and recovery of nature. Looking forward, our evidence synthesis team will use Conservation Evidence in evidence reviews to access evidence on outcomes of conservation interventions.” Sallie Bailey, Chief Scientist, Natural England

Explore the database: Conservation Evidence Database

Explore the toolkit: Conservation Evidence

Read more: Vice Chancellor Award for Impact and Engagement, Cambridge University

For further information please contact: Bill Sutherland