Conservation Effectiveness series sparks action, dialogue

Some strategies for protecting forests and wildlife, such as protected areas and community forestry, have become immensely popular around the world. But do these conservation strategies truly achieve the objectives they set out to realize? How much scientific evidence do we have about their effectiveness? What is the quality of that evidence? What are the information gaps? Our seven-part series Conservation Effectiveness sought to answer these questions through an in-depth investigation spanning 10 months. We pored through more than 200 scientific papers and talked to numerous experts to critically examine what we know about the efficacy of six common strategies: Forest certification, payments for ecosystem services, community-based forest management, terrestrial protected areas, marine protected areas, and environmental advocacy. For each of the six strategies, we presented the findings of our review of the scientific literature in the form of an interactive infographic that readers can use to explore and engage with the scientific findings. We also examined the four big groups that dominate today’s conservation landscape: The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International (CI), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). What kinds of evidence do these groups use to inform their decisions? How do they evaluate the impact of their projects? Part 1: Does forest certification really work? Part 2: Cash for conservation: Do payments for ecosystem services work? Part 3: Does community-based forest management work in the tropics? Part 4: Experience or evidence: How do big conservation NGOs make decisions? Part 5: Do protected…

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