The quest for a perfect understanding of the causes of species decline can get in the way of good options for immediate action when it comes to conservation.
A framework to tackle this issue is described in a new paper published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, co-authored by Prof Jeremy Wilson, Director of Science, RSPB and Prof Rhys Green, who is based here in Zoology.
The extinction crisis makes it increasingly important that conservation scientists diagnose the causes of species decline accurately, but also quickly enough that the patient does not die on the operating table.
The proposed four-step process described in the paper offers a widely applicable toolkit to allow conservationists to move from despair to more rapid implementation of practical conservation options for a wide range of species.
Read the paper:
Wilson, J. D., & Green, R. E. (2025). Diagnosis of external causes of population declines of wild species needs to be both quick and reliable. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 6, e70048. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70048