PRISM: Practical Impact Assessment Methods for Small and Medium-sized Conservation Projects

I provide strategic leadership and oversight of BTO science, which encompasses both monitoring and research. Our monitoring includes both volunteer-based and professional surveys to assess changes in the abundance, distribution and demography of bird populations, and of selected non-avian taxa.  We also lead on the analysis of these data, conducting research to understand causes of population change, the processes that underpin observed ecological patterns, and to inform what is required to manage species and habitats. In addition, I lead BTO’s climate change research which involves documenting impacts on UK biodiversity, undertaking projections of likely future impacts on species’ distributions and abundance, and informing the development of climate change adaptation. In 2014 CUP published Birds and Climate Change. Impacts and Conservation Responses, which I co-authored with Rhys Green.

As Director of the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme, David oversees the delivery of a programme of work supporting large-scale nature recovery in Europe. After graduating, he worked at University College London exploring landscape-scale impacts of dams and drainage on economy, ecology and society in Tunisia.

David went on to work for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), providing technical advice on links between environment and local livelihoods at a floodplain wetland in northern Nigeria, before completing a PhD in Geography at the University of Cambridge.

From 1997 until 2017, David worked at BirdLife International where, as Head of Environment and Sustainable Development, he coordinated the different strands of BirdLife’s environment and sustainable development work and led on cross-cutting issues of conservation and governance, equity, rights, poverty reduction, gender, indigenous peoples, livelihoods and well-being.

I am currently heavily involved in exploring a range of ways of integrating conservation science and policy especially through the development of evidence-based conservation. I have written The Conservation Handbook and From Individual Behaviour to Population Biology and have edited Managing Habitats for Conservation, Ecological Census Techniques, Behaviour and Conservation, Conservation Science and Action and Bird Ecology and Conservation: a Handbook of Techniques and most recently Transforming Conservation: a practical guide to evidence and decision making.

Read an interview with Bill published in ‘This Cambridge Life’ by the University of Cambridge.

I am Chief Scientist at BirdLife International where I lead a team who help to provide the scientific basis for the conservation programmes of the 115 Partners that form the BirdLife International Partnership. This includes assessing extinction risk for the world’s birds for the IUCN Red List, coordinating the standards and protocols for identifying and monitoring Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) globally, identifying key threats to birds and their habitats, determining the priority actions required (for species, sites, habitats and along flyways), understanding the how people depend upon the ecosystem services delivered by IBAs, developing biodiversity indicators based on bird data, and ensuring that sound science underpins BirdLife’s policy, advocacy and communications activities.

I am the Director of the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) – an NGO that is building the capacity of conservation scientists and managers in Africa and SE Asia.  The TBA has trained over 2,800 conservation scientists from 70 countries world-wide and has a 90% contact rate with its trainees.  Many are now leading conservationists, or hold senior positions in government and non-government organisations.  Recently, my team and I have developed a new programme of online training and are exploring the huge potential that the online environment offers for bringing conservation to life.

I hold a BA and a DPhil in zoology from the University of Oxford.   I am also a founding member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and Cambridge Conservation Forum and an organiser of the Student Conference on Conservation Science.

Robert has moved to a research programme on integrated catchments solutions https://www.environment.leeds.ac.uk/research/yorkshire-icasp/ at the Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds, UK. This will allow him to continue to work on supporting the impact of research, whilst also allowing for specialism in flood risk management in the UK.

Robert previously spent 4 years at UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre working on climate change and multilateral environmental agreements.

I am a social scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science and my research investigates the links between society and nature. I am exploring the relationships between biodiversity and human well-being, the role of people’s nature experiences in developing a connection to nature and how to build stronger connections between society and the sea. I use social science methods to research these topics, and identify ways to better connect society with nature in order to achieve conservation benefits. I have an interdisciplinary background which includes marine ecology, policy, governance and psychology.

I support projects across FFI from design through to monitoring, evaluation and learning, and lead the roll out of FFI’s theory of change approach. I work at project level to develop bespoke solutions to effectively monitor and understand project outcomes and impacts and lead on organisational impact assessment. 

As a social scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, I develop and conduct scientific research as well as provide support within other projects. My background is in wildlife ecology and conservation, and my research interests are largely around engaging people with nature in order to meet conservation goals and objectives. In particular, I am investigating the concept of connection to nature, the relationship between connection and behaviour, and the effects of experiencing nature on human health and wellbeing.

I am based at the BirdLife International global secretariat in Cambridge. The main focus of my work involves directly supporting BirdLife partners to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of their work and providing input on monitoring, evaluation and learning to BirdLife projects, programme and departments. I also manage PRISM, a resource produced by a previous CCI collaboration which is focused on building evaluation capacity for conservation projects. I have a BSc in Zoology from Glasgow University and an MSc in Ecology from Lancaster University.