Paul Tinsley-Marshall

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Site Manager - Rye Harbour Nature Reserve at Sussex Wildlife Trust

Improving the effectiveness of conservation practice requires better use of evidence. Since 2004, researchers from the Conservation Evidence group (University of Cambridge) have engaged with over 1100 named practitioners, policymakers, funders and other academics from across the world to identify needs and develop a range of principles, tools and r...

There are severe problems with the decision-making processes currently widely used, leading to ineffective use of evidence, faulty decisions, wasting of resources and the erosion of public and political support. In this book an international team of experts provide solutions. The transformation suggested includes rethinking how evidence is assessed...

There are severe problems with the decision-making processes currently widely used, leading to ineffective use of evidence, faulty decisions, wasting of resources and the erosion of public and political support. In this book an international team of experts provide solutions. The transformation suggested includes rethinking how evidence is assessed...

An account of the changing fortunes of Kent’s species and habitats, the pressures nature has faced and the conservation efforts undertaken over the last 10 years.

Although some sectors have made significant progress in learning from failure, there is currently limited consensus on how a similar transition could best be achieved in conservation and what is required to facilitate this. One of the key enabling conditions for other sectors is a widely accepted and standardized classification system for identifyi...

In recent years, scientists and the media have drawn attention to global declines in insect abundance, the consequences of which are potentially catastrophic. Invertebrates are critical to ecosystem functions and services, and without them, life on earth would collapse. However, there has been insufficient data to make robust conclusions about tren...

Evidence-based approaches are key for underpinning effective conservation practice, but major gaps in the evidence of the effectiveness of interventions limit their use. Conservation practitioners could make major contributions to filling these gaps but often lack the time, funding, or capacity to do so properly. Many funders target the delivery of...

Making the reasoning and evidence behind conservation management decisions clear and transparent is a key challenge for the conservation community. Similarly, combining evidence from diverse sources (e.g., scientific and local knowledge) into decision‐making is also difficult. Our group of conservation researchers and practitioners has co‐produced...

Making the reasoning and evidence behind conservation decisions clear and transparent is a key challenge for the conservation community. Similarly, combining evidence from diverse sources (e.g., scientific vs non-scientific information) into decision-making is also difficult. Our group of conservation researchers and practitioners has co-produced a...

Landscape-scale conservation is the combined contribution of multiple actions, on multiple sites, and by multiple stakeholders, to the resilience of ecological networks. This results in a complex matrix of interventions and policies in space and time. Monitoring the outcomes of landscape-scale conservation therefore presents significant challenges...

Making effective decisions in conservation requires a broad and robust evidence base describing the likely outcomes of potential actions to draw on. Such evidence is typically generated from experiments or trials that evaluate the effectiveness of actions, but for many actions evidence is missing or incomplete. We discuss how evidence can be genera...

A growing body of recent evidence highlights population declines in insects and other invertebrates at global scales, the consequences of which are potentially catastrophic. Invertebrates are a critical component of ecosystem function, and all functional groups (herbivores, detritivores, parasitoids, predators and pollinators) are at risk. Without...

It is widely accepted that nature conservation practice benefits from incorporating scientific evidence into decision-making. However, even when the evidence is already collated, the task of applying evidence to all of the decisions undertaken by conservation professionals can seem overwhelming. The apparent magnitude of this task may deter individ...

A report summarising habitat condition data collected over a four-year baseline period using a spatially referenced grid square sampling approach to map and quantify habitat condition attributes of lowland heath and bog habitats at Hothfield Heathlands, Kent, UK.

In Scotland, the well documented increase in the red deer population is widely regarded as a cause for concern, due to potentially detrimental impacts of grazing. This has led to conflicting objectives between conservation and deer managers, despite the extent of the increase and the resulting impact both being hotly debated issues. Upland heather...

The Great Fen is a visionary project to restore 3700 ha of largely arable land into an area of wildlife-rich and publicly accessible fenland landscape. The Great Fen lies in Huntingdonshire, with Peterborough to the north and Huntingdon to the south, and encompasses two National Nature Reserves (NNRs) – Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen. It is managed i...

In 2012, a baseline survey of the flora of the ditches in the Great Fen was undertaken, using a method recommended by Buglife, The Invertebrate Conservation Trust. All the ditches lie in previously arable land that has recently been acquired for the purpose of nature conservation. A range of metrics was produced to describe the aquatic component of...

The Mauritius Kestrel is the only bird of prey left on Mauritius. It is a falcon that hunts mostly day geckos and occasionally small passerines such as fodies and white-eyes. The kestrels in Mauritius are smaller than their European or American counterparts due to their evolution and their adaptation to hunting under canopy. However they still reta...