Improving conservation practice with principles and tools from systems thinking and evaluation

Improving conservation practice with principles and tools from systems thinking and evaluation

Achieving nature conservation goals require grappling with ‘wicked’ problems. These intractable problems arise from the complexity and dynamism of the social–ecological systems in which they are...

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(Breaking) The Iron Triangle of Evaluation*

(Breaking) The Iron Triangle of Evaluation*

Ideas from complexity science and systems thinking are demonstrably helpful in a shift from exploring (systematic) linear net effects of an intervention towards exploring wider (systemic)...

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Black swans, cognition, and the power of learning from failure

Black swans, cognition, and the power of learning from failure

Failure carries undeniable stigma and is difficult to confront for individuals, teams, and organizations. Disciplines such as commercial and military aviation, medicine, and business have...

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Why should we save the wild relatives of domesticated animals?

Why should we save the wild relatives of domesticated animals?

In his opus on the pheasants of the world, published in the early 1900s, the zoologist William Beebe wrote that his observations on wild red jungle fowl, the progenitor of domestic chickens...

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Breaking the deadlock on ivory

Breaking the deadlock on ivory

Poaching for ivory has caused a steep decline in African elephant (Loxodonta africana, see the photo) populations over the past decade. This crisis has fueled a contentious global debate over which ivory policy would best protect elephants...

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Assessment of the Conservation Measures Partnership's effort to improve conservation outcomes through adaptive management

Assessment of the Conservation Measures Partnership's effort to improve conservation outcomes through adaptive management

Conservation practice has demonstrated an increasing desire for accountability of actions, particularly with respect to effectiveness, efficiency, and impact to clearly identified objectives...

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Culturally Responsive Evaluation Meets Systems-Oriented Evaluation

Culturally Responsive Evaluation Meets Systems-Oriented Evaluation

The authors of this article each bring a different theoretical background to their evaluation practice. The first author has a background of attention to culturally responsive evaluation (CRE), while the second author...

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Evaluation of the impacts of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of natural forest management in the tropics: a rigorous approach to assessment of a complex conservation intervention

Evaluation of the impacts of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of natural forest management in the tropics: a rigorous approach to assessment of a complex conservation intervention

After more than 20 years and substantial investments of time and money, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of tropical forest management is due for a stringent impact evaluation. For any social, ecological, and economic...

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The Role of Systems Thinking in the Practice of Implementing Sustainable Development Goals

The Role of Systems Thinking in the Practice of Implementing Sustainable Development Goals

Implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN Summit in September 2015 specifically invites the creation of “an integrated, holistic, multi-stakeholder approach”. This implies the need for systems thinking...

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PCI: A Reflective Evaluation Framework for Systems Change

PCI: A Reflective Evaluation Framework for Systems Change

Systemic change involves deep shifts in social norms, beliefs, power, and privilege — and seldom, if ever, follows a straightforward, predictable path. Such change also requires incremental, long-term action and evaluation...

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Aligning science and policy to achieve evolutionarily enlightened conservation

Aligning science and policy to achieve evolutionarily enlightened conservation

There is increasing recognition among conservation scientists that long‐term conservation outcomes could be improved through better integration of evolutionary theory into management practices. Despite concerns that the importance...

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Understanding protected area resilience: a multi‐scale, social‐ecological approach

Understanding protected area resilience: a multi‐scale, social‐ecological approach

Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change...

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Studying the complexity of change: toward an analytical framework for understanding deliberate social-ecological transformations

Studying the complexity of change: toward an analytical framework for understanding deliberate social-ecological transformations

Faced with numerous seemingly intractable social and environmental challenges, many scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in understanding how to actively engage and transform the existing systems...

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Rigour (-mortis) in evaluation

Rigour (-mortis) in evaluation

Evaluation-in-practice can be regarded as a confluence of interactions between three broad idealised sets of stakeholders – the evaluand, evaluators, and commissioners of evaluations. Elsewhere I have suggested two...

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Theory-of-Change Development for the Evaluation of Forest Stewardship Council Certification of Sustained Timber Yields from Natural Forests in Indonesia

Theory-of-Change Development for the Evaluation of Forest Stewardship Council Certification of Sustained Timber Yields from Natural Forests in Indonesia

To illustrate the importance of theories-of-change (ToCs) for evaluation of conservation interventions, we consider the global ToC from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and then develop a more explicit ToC focused on the sustained...

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