The Evidence-to-Decision ToolA user guide and an offline template version of the tool are available to download below.
Conservation Evidence blog, Applied Ecologist blog, Conservation Land Management Magazine Winter 2021 Vol.19 No.4.
Christie, A. P., Downey, H., Frick, W. F., Grainger, M., O'Brien, D., Tinsley-Marshall, P., White, T. B., Winter, M., & Sutherland, W. J. (2022). A practical conservation tool to combine diverse types of evidence for transparent evidence-based decision-making. Conservation Science and Practice, 4(1), e579. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.579
The Evidence-to-Decision tool has been co-designed between Conservation Evidence and practitioners from several organisations to help guide practitioners through the process of making an evidence-based decision. The tool is structured to help you consider and combine several forms of evidence (e.g., scientific evidence, tacit knowledge, values, costs) to reach a transparent decision, documenting each stage of the process so that the logic and reasoning behind decisions can be open and traceable. Access the online tool by clicking the green button, or if you wish to use an offline template of the tool please click on the appropriate blue button (a recommended user guide is also available there to help you use the tool).
Alec Christie: App designer and developer. Research Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge and Conservation Evidence.
I would like to thank the following people and organisations (in no particular order) who tested and provided feedback on the Evidence-to-Decision tool: Michael Winter from the University of Exeter; David O'Brien from NatureScot; Matthew Grainger from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research; Paul Tinsley-Marshall, Steve Weeks, Alison Ruyter and Rory Harding from the Kent Wildlife Trust; Thomas White, Harriet Downey, and William Sutherland from the University of Cambridge; Tom McPherson from Ingleby Farms; Karen Hornigold at the Woodland Trust; Conservation Evidence; Winifred Frick and Jon Flanders at Bat Conservation International; Kathy Wormald at Froglife; the Medway Valley Countryside Partnership; Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust; Catherine McNicol at Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust; the 2019 cohort of Master's in Conservation Leadership students, University of Cambridge. Thanks also to three anonymous reviewers and Nick Salafsky for their comments to improve the tool. Everyone's help in contributing to its development was invaluable.