Welcome to the
Society for Conservation Biology’s
Impact Evaluation Working Group
Scope
Our planet is facing ever-increasing threats to biodiversity from human activities, such as land use change, invasive species, climate change, and overfishing. Effective conservation efforts are crucial to protect and preserve ecosystems for future generations. Improving conservation outcomes will require assessing whether and why interventions are achieving their goals and making efficient use of invested resources.
Causal inference and counterfactual thinking help us ask the right questions about conservation, such as: Did the intervention cause the observed outcomes? What would have happened otherwise? Impact evaluation methods help operationalise this thinking, providing practical ways to infer causal relationships between interventions and conservation outcomes. By showing what works, what doesn’t, and why, these methods can generate guidance for improved conservation strategies and contribute to the evidence base for sustained investment in conservation.
As part of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), the Impact Evaluation Working Group (IEWG) aims to advance evidence-based biodiversity conservation efforts across the globe by supporting the adoption of counterfactual thinking to understand the impacts of conservation. As we generate increasing evidence from impact evaluations, future conservation interventions will be better informed, and hence, more successful at curbing biodiversity losses worldwide.
Goals & Objectives
Scientific Advancement
– Foster an active community through networking events, volunteering opportunities and symposia at SCB meetings, as well as virtual discussions.
– Promote greater understanding among SCB members and the wider conservation community on the appropriate design and interpretation of counterfactual approaches to assessing conservation impacts.
– Bridge the gap between research and practice by making impact evaluation central to conservation project design, implementation, and funding.
Community & Collaboration
– Collaborate with other SCB Working Groups, Regions, and Global Programs to help integrate impact evaluation into their conservation work.
– Collaborate with conservation actors – from funders and policymakers to communities and businesses – to integrate conservation impact evaluation into their work.
– Provide capacity-building opportunities for SCB members on how to conduct impact evaluations and how to choose between different methods.
– Create opportunities for practitioners, academics, funders, and other stakeholders to exchange ideas about and collaborate on conservation impact evaluations.
Introductory resources
– Compile resources for academics and conservation practitioners to support learning about how to conduct impact evaluations in conservation.