William J SutherlandUniversity of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Zoology
William J Sutherland
BSc, PhD
About
908
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Introduction
Conservation scientist interested in a wide range of conservation problems. Heavily involved in linking science and policy especially through ConservationEvidence.com
Additional affiliations
January 2008 - present
January 2007 - December 2013
January 1989 - December 2011
Publications
Publications (908)
Trade represents a significant threat to many wild species and is often clandestine and poorly monitored. Information on which species are most prevalent in trade and potentially threatened by it therefore remains fragmentary. We used 7 global data sets on birds in trade to identify species or groups of species at particular risk and assessed the e...
Climate change poses a massive and growing threat to wildlife. Calls are growing for coordinated and collaborative responses to conserve species threatened by climate change, but how this works in practice remains largely unexplored. Focusing on seabirds in North‐West Europe, we carried out 32 semi‐structured stakeholder interviews to (1) explore e...
This anthology brings together a diversity of key texts in the emerging field of Existential Risk Studies. It serves to complement the previous volume The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies by providing open access to original research and insights in this rapidly evolving field. At its heart, this book highlights the o...
This anthology brings together a diversity of key texts in the emerging field of Existential Risk Studies. It serves to complement the previous volume The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies by providing open access to original research and insights in this rapidly evolving field. At its heart, this book highlights the o...
This anthology brings together a diversity of key texts in the emerging field of Existential Risk Studies. It serves to complement the previous volume The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies by providing open access to original research and insights in this rapidly evolving field. At its heart, this book highlights the o...
This anthology brings together a diversity of key texts in the emerging field of Existential Risk Studies. It serves to complement the previous volume The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies by providing open access to original research and insights in this rapidly evolving field. At its heart, this book highlights the o...
Understanding the consequences of past conservation efforts is essential to inform the means of maintaining and restoring species. Data from the IUCN Red List for 67,217 comprehensively assessed animal species were reviewed and analysed to determine (i) which conservation actions have been implemented for different species, (ii) which types of spec...
Among migratory vertebrates, high levels of fidelity to non‐breeding sites during adulthood are common. If occupied sites vary in quality, strong site fidelity can have profound consequences for individual fitness and population demography. Given the prevalence of adult site fidelity, the regions of the non‐breeding range to which juveniles first m...
With over 21% of reptile species threatened with extinction, we urgently need to ensure conservation actions to protect and restore populations are informed by relevant, reliable evidence. Here we examine the geographic and taxonomic distribution of 707 studies synthesised in Conservation Evidence’s Reptile Conservation synopsis testing the effects...
Graphs in research articles can increase the comprehension of statistical data but may mislead readers if poorly designed. We propose a new plot type, the sea stack plot, which combines vertical histograms and summary statistics to represent large univariate datasets accurately, usefully, and efficiently. We compare five commonly used plot types (d...
Marine and freshwater mammals are increasingly threatened due to human activity. To improve conservation practice, decisions should be informed by the available evidence on the effectiveness of conservation actions. Using a systematically collated database of studies that test the effectiveness of actions to conserve marine and freshwater mammals,...
This guide is designed as a starting point to help researchers and practitioners working in mangrove conservation and restoration who want to engage with and include LEK in their projects. This applies
to, but is not limited to, members of the Global Mangrove Alliance, their collaborators, and the broader conservation community
We present the results of our 15th horizon scan of novel issues that could influence biological conservation in the future. From an initial list of 96 issues, our international panel of scientists and practitioners identified 15 that we consider important for societies worldwide to track and potentially respond to. Issues are novel within conservat...
We present the results of our 15th horizon scan of novel issues that could influence biological conservation in the future. From an initial list of 96 issues, our international panel of scientists and practitioners identified 15 that we consider important for societies worldwide to track and potentially respond to. Issues are novel within conservat...
Illustration outreaching the main results of our study published in PNAS: Juan P. González-Varo, Jörg Albrecht, Juan M. Arroyo, Rafael S. Bueno, Tamara Burgos, Gema Escribano-Ávila, Nina Farwig, Daniel García, Juan C. Illera, Pedro Jordano, Przemysław Kurek, Sascha Rösner, Emilio Virgós & William J. Sutherland (2023) Frugivore-mediated seed dispers...
The multi-billion dollar ornamental plant trade benefits economies worldwide but shifting and more streamlined globalised supply chains have exacerbated complex environmental, sustainability, and biosecurity risks. We review environmental and social costs of this international legal trade, and complement this with analyses of illegal plant trade se...
Forests are in the spotlight: they are expected to play a pivotal role in our response to society’s greatest challenges, such as the climate and biodiversity crises. Yet, the forests themselves, and the sector that manages them, face a range of interrelated threats and opportunities. Many of these are well understood, even if the solutions remain e...
Illustration outreaching the main results of our study published in PNAS:
Juan P. González-Varo, Jörg Albrecht, Juan M. Arroyo, Rafael S. Bueno, Tamara Burgos, Gema Escribano-Ávila, Nina Farwig, Daniel García, Juan C. Illera, Pedro Jordano, Przemysław Kurek, Sascha Rösner, Emilio Virgós & William J. Sutherland (2023) Frugivore-mediated seed disper...
Seed dispersal by frugivores is a fundamental function for plant community dynamics in fragmented landscapes, where forest remnants are typically embedded in a matrix of anthropogenic habitats. Frugivores can mediate both connectivity among forest remnants and plant colonization of the matrix. However, it remains poorly understood how frugivore com...
Illustration outreaching the main results of our study published in PNAS: Juan P. González-Varo, Jörg Albrecht, Juan M. Arroyo, Rafael S. Bueno, Tamara Burgos, Gema Escribano-Ávila, Nina Farwig, Daniel García, Juan C. Illera, Pedro Jordano, Przemysław Kurek, Sascha Rösner, Emilio Virgós & William J. Sutherland (2023) Frugivore-mediated seed dispers...
1. Graphs in research articles can increase the comprehension of statistical data but may mislead readers if poorly designed. Previous literature has found that the two most frequently used plot types - bar charts and dot and whisker plots - are a poor way to represent data because they only show the summary statistics of data, not their distributi...
Meeting the urgent need to protect and restore ecosystems requires effective decision-making through wisely considering a range of evidence. However, weighing and assessing evidence to make complex decisions is challenging, particularly when evidence is of diverse types, subjects, and sources, and varies greatly in its quality and relevance. To tac...
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...
Trade represents a significant threat to many wild species and is often clandestine and poorly monitored. Information on which species are most prevalent in trade, and potentially threatened by it, therefore remains fragmentary. We mobilised seven global datasets on birds in trade to identify the species or groups of species that might be at partic...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
This book was produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge with two aims: to assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and to identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability.
'Seabirds in the North-East Atlantic' collates information from the scientific...
Invasions by Spartina species pose serious threats to global coastal ecosystems. Although many studies have examined the effectiveness and ecological impacts of invasive Spartina management, no comprehensive global synthesis has been conducted to assess the effects of management on Spartina per se and on wider non-targets. Here, we conducted a glob...
Conservation guidance—an authoritative source of information and recommendations explicitly supporting decision-making and action regarding nature conservation—represents an important tool to communicate evidence-based advice to conservation actors. Given the rapidly increasing pressure that climate change poses to biodiversity, producing accessibl...
Meeting the urgent need to protect and restore ecosystems requires effective decision-making through wisely considering a range of evidence. However, weighing and assessing evidence to make complex decisions is challenging, particularly when evidence is of diverse types, subjects, and sources, and varies greatly in its quality and relevance. To tac...
Many publications lack sufficient background information (e.g. location) to be interpreted, replicated, or reused for synthesis. This impedes scientific progress and the application of science to practice. Reporting guidelines (e.g. checklists) improve reporting standards. They have been widely taken up in the medical sciences, but not in ecologica...
Cassava is consumed by 800 million people and is a staple crop in Africa. Its production may increase under climate change due to its high drought tolerance. We produced a systematic map of scientific studies about cassava farming practices, with the aim of identifying knowledge gaps and clusters. Our secondary aim was to develop a classification s...
There is an increasing expectation on the private sector to address biodiversity impacts and contribute towards global conservation goals. Appropriate evidence use can help businesses avoid biodiversity losses and realise gains, reduce ineffective or suboptimal action, whilst minimising biodiversity‐related risks and securing opportunities from eng...
Business-biodiversity action is increasingly seen as critical for delivering conservation goals, but such action needs to be effective. Using detailed semi-structured interviews with leading business-biodiversity professionals and consultants we aimed to understand the actions currently taken and why, how actions are decided upon, and current chall...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The need for conservation action to be cost‐effective is widely accepted, resulting in increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing the financial and economic costs of conservation is equally important for assessing cost‐effectiveness, yet their measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sect...
We present the results of our 14th horizon scan of issues we expect to influence biological conservation in the future. From an initial set of 102 topics, our global panel of 30 scientists and practitioners identified 15 issues we consider most urgent for societies worldwide to address. Issues are novel within biological conservation or represent a...
Foresight science is a systematic approach to generate future predictions for planning and management by drawing upon analytical and predictive tools to understand the past and present, while providing insights about the future. To illustrate the application of foresight science in conservation, we present three case studies: identification of emer...
The use of systematic reviews to collate and summarise evidence is considered one of the great intellectual achievements of recent times. Evidence synthesis has had far-reaching impacts and has helped to inform decision-making in multiple fields. However, it also faces three problems: (i) reviews cannot be relevant to everyone, hampering decision-m...
Widespread afforestation is a crucial component of climate mitigation strategies worldwide. This presents a significant opportunity for biodiversity conservation if forests are appropriately managed. Within forests, structural and habitat diversity are known to be critical for biodiversity but pragmatic management recommendations are lacking. We ma...
The management of invasive species requires analytical tools that can synthesise the increasing and complex information generated through risk assessment protocols. To that end, fault tree analysis (FTA) provides a means to conceptually map all of the events leading to a particular undesired scenario with associated probabilities and uncertainty.
W...
There is an increasing expectation on the private sector to address biodiversity impacts and contribute towards global conservation goals. Appropriate evidence use can help businesses avoid biodiversity losses and realise gains, reduce resources wasted on ineffective or suboptimal action, whilst minimising biodiversity-related risks and securing op...
The biodiversity of marine and coastal habitats is experiencing unprecedented change. While there are well-known drivers of these changes, such as overexploitation, climate change and pollution, there are also relatively unknown emerging issues that are poorly understood or recognized that have potentially positive or negative impacts on marine and...
Background and Research Aims: Dams impact freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. Freshwater turtles are at direct and indirect risk due to changes caused by damming including the loss of terrestrial and aquatic nesting habitats, changes to food availability and blocking movement. Effective management of these impacts requires robust evidence in or...
International policy is focused on increasing the proportion of the Earth’s surface that is protected for nature1,2. Although studies show that protected areas prevent habitat loss3–6, there is a lack of evidence for their effect on species’ populations: existing studies are at local scale or use simple designs that lack appropriate controls7–13. H...
There is an urgent need to quantify the potential for conservation interventions to effectively manage the impacts of climate change on species' populations and ecological communities. In this first quantitative global assessment of biodiversity conservation interventions for climate change adaptation, we identified 77 peer-reviewed studies, includ...
Mangroves are often cleared for aquaculture, agriculture, and coastal development despite the range of benefits for people and nature that they provide. In response to these losses, there are multiple global, and regional efforts aimed at accelerating mangrove forest restoration, resulting in many restoration projects being implemented and managed...
Many types of guidance documents inform conservation by providing practical recommendations for the management of species and habitats. To ensure effective decisions are made, such guidance should be based upon relevant and up-to-date evidence. We reviewed conservation guidance for mitigation and management of species and habitats in the United Kin...
Early detection and rapid response are cornerstones of effective invasive species management. However, these strategies can be challenging to implement when the arrival of a non-native species has not been predicted, as may be the case when a species is discovered large distances from known populations. Brown marmorated stink bugs Halyomorpha halys...
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...
Wildlife conservation is severely limited by funding. Therefore, to maximize biodiversity outcomes, assessing financial costs of interventions is as important as assessing effectiveness. We reviewed the reporting of costs in studies testing the effectiveness of conservation interventions: 13.3% of the studies provided numeric costs, and 8.8% report...