Department of Zoology

Prof William Sutherland CBE FRS

St Catharine's College

Research Professor
Former Miriam Rothschild Chair of Conservation Biology

Contact

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Location

David Attenborough Building
Room 3.05

Research

I am co-leader, with Prof Andrew Balmford and Prof Rob Fletcher of the Conservation Science Group.

As well as a general interest in many aspects of conservation science I am especially interested in improving the processes by which decisions are made. This has involved horizon scanning to identify future issues to reduce the surprises of future developments.

My main work has been the industrial-scale collation of evidence to determine which interventions are effective and which are not and then establishing processes for embedding evidence in decision making.

I am also interested in the processes of decision making as this is often so clearly flawed.

I am a core member of the Conservation Evidence team.

Publications

Selected publications

Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement Journal article 4 March 2026 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(10), p.e2519345123 Sutherland, W.J., Burgess, N.D., Edwards, S.V., Jones, J.P., Soltis, P.S., Tilman, D., Allen, J.M., Andrianandrasana, H.T., Armour, C.J., August, T., Bawa, K.S. Will AI speed up literature reviews or derail them entirely? Journal article 7 July 2026 Nature, 643(8071), pp.329-331 Reynolds, S.A., Christie, A.P., Jaffer, S., Madhavapeddy, A., Smith, R.K., Sutherland, W.J. The potential for AI to revolutionize conservation: a horizon scan Journal article 17 December 2024 Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2024; 40, 191-207 Reynolds, S.A., Beery, S., Burgess, N., Burgman, M., Butchart, S.H., Cooke, S.J., Coomes, D., Danielsen, F., Di Minin, E., Durán, A.P., Gassert, F., Hinsley, A., Jaffer, S., Jones, J.P.G., Li, B.V., Aodha, O.M., Madhavapeddy, A., O'Donnell, S.A.L., Oxbury, W.M., Peck, L., Pettorelli, N., Rodriquez, J.P., Shuckburgh, E., Strassburg, B., Yamashita, H., Miao, Z., Sutherland, W.J. Introducing a common taxonomy to support learning from failure in conservation Journal article 13 June 2022 Conservation Biology, 37, e13967 Dickson, I., Butchart, S.H.M., Catalano, A., Gibbons, D., Jones, J.P.G., Lee-Brooks, K., Noble, D., Oldfield, T., Paterson, S., Roy, S., Semelin, J., Tinsley-Marshall, P., Trevelyan, R., Wauchope, H., Wicander, S., Sutherland, W.J. Frugivore-mediated seed dispersal in fragmented landscapes: Compositional and functional turnover from forest to matrix Journal article 23 October 2023 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(44), e2302440120 González-Varo, J. P., Albrecht, J., Arroyo, J.M., Bueno, R.S., Burgos, T., Escribano-Ávila, G., Farwig, N., García, D., Ilera, J.C., Jordano, P., Kurek, P., Rösner, S., Virgós, E., Sutherland, W.J. Flexible synthesis to deliver relevant evidence for decision-making Journal article 14 July 2023 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. 120 No. 26 Martin, P.A., Christie, A.P., Shackleford, G., Hood, A., Wang, S., Li, B., Morgan, W.H., Lee, M., Aldridge, D.C., Sutherland, W.J. Transforming Conservation: A Practical Guide to Evidence and Decision Making Book 6 December 2022 Open Books Sutherland, W.J. Protected areas have a mixed impact on waterbirds, but management helps Journal article 20 April 2022 Nature 605, 103–107 (2022) Wauchope, H.S., Jones, J.P.G., Geldmann, J., Simmons, B.I., Amano, T., Blanco, D.E., Fuller, R.A., Johnston, A., Langendoen, T., Mundkur, T., Nagy, S., Sutherland, W.J. What is the price of conservation; a review of the status quo and recommendations for improving cost reporting 23 March 2022 BioScience 72(5): 461–471 White, T.B., Petrovan, S.O., Christie, A.P., Martin, P.A., Sutherland, W.J. Conservation Research, Policy and Practice Book 18 April 2020 Cambridge University Press Sutherland, W.J., Brotherton, P.N.M., Davies, Z.G., Ockendon, N., Pettorelli, N., Vickery, J.A.

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Collaborators