Co-developing guidance for conservation: an example for seabirds in the North-East Atlantic in the face of climate change impacts

Häkkinen, H. et al. (2023) Co-developing guidance for conservation: an example for seabirds in the North-East Atlantic in the face of climate change impacts. Conservation Science and Practice, 5(8), e12985. (doi: 10.1111/csp2.12985)

Abstract

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 accessible, well-informed guidance on how to best manage the impacts and risks of changing climatic conditions is particularly urgent. Guidance documents should ideally be produced with multistage input from stakeholders who are likely to use and implement such advice; however, this step can be complicated and costly, and remains largely unformalized. Moreover, there is currently little direct evidence synthesized for actions that specifically target climate change and guidance remains largely absent. Here, we introduce a process for co-developing guidance for species conservation in the face of climate change, using seabirds in the North-East Atlantic as a case study. Specifically, we collated evidence on climate change vulnerability and possible conservation actions using literature synthesis, stakeholder surveys, and ecological modeling. This evidence base was then discussed, refined, and expanded using structured stakeholder workshops. We summarize the knowledge gained through stakeholder engagement and provide recommendations for future international efforts to co-produce conservation guidance for managing wildlife, in the context of a rapidly changing climate.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Knowledge co‐creation, climate change vulnerability assessment, evidence‐based conservation, knowledge translation.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Maniszewska, Ms Klaudyna
• Authors: Häkkinen, H., Taylor, N. G., Pettorelli, N., Sutherland, W. J., Aldará, J., Anker‐Nilssen, T., Aulert, C., van Bemmelen, R. S. A., Burnell, D., Cadiou, B., Campioni, L., Clark, B. L., Dehnhard, N., Dias, M. P., Enners, L., Furness, R. W., Hallgrímsson, G. Þ., Hammer, S., Hansen, E. S., Hario, M., Hurling, S., Jessopp, M., Kleinschmidt, B., Leivits, M., Maniszewska, K., Oppel, S., Payo‐Payo, A., Piec, D., Ramos, J. A., Robin, F., Sørensen, I. H., Stīpniece, A., Thompson, D. L., Vulcano, A., and Petrovan, S.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Conservation Science and Practice
• Publisher: Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology
• ISSN: 2578-4854
• ISSN (Online): 2578-4854
• Published Online: 23 June 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Conservation Science and Practice 5(8):e12985
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0343