40 questions that, if addressed or answered would help formulate appropriate conservation policy and management at a national Level

Generation of Priority Research Questions to Inform Conservation Policy and Management at a National Level

MURRAY A. RUDD,KAREN F. BEAZLEY,STEVEN J. COOKE,ERICA FLEISHMAN,DANIEL E. LANE,MICHAEL B. MASCIA,ROBIN ROTH,GARY TABOR,JISELLE A. BAKKER,TERESA BELLEFONTAINE,DOMINIQUE BERTEAUX,BERNARD CANTIN,KEITH G. CHAUK,KATHRYN CUNNINGHAM,ROD DOBELL,ELEANOR FAST,NADIA FERRARA,C. SCOTT FINDLAY,LARS K. HALLSTROM,THOMAS HAMMOND,LUISE HERMANUTZ,JEFFREY A. HUTCHINGS,KATHRYN E. LINDSAY,TIM J. MARTA,VIVIAN M. NGUYEN,GREG NORTHEY,KENT PRIOR,SAUDIEL RAMIREZ-SANCHEZ,JAKE RICE,DARREN J. H. SLEEP,NORA D. SZABO,GENEVIÈVE TROTTIER,JEAN-PATRICK TOUSSAINT,JEAN-PHILIPPE VEILLEUX

 Conservation Biology, Volume 25, Issue 3, pages 476–484, June 2011

Here is a very interesting paper that I read recently. It is an open access paper. The accent is on Canada, but it has relevance worldwide.

 Under the present day realities societal tradeoffs between human use of biological diversity and its preservation is a sine qua non. To achieve this objective Integrating knowledge from across the natural and social sciences is necessary.

The authors say collaborative processes can change the ways decision makers think about scientific evidence, enhance levels of mutual trust and credibility, and advance the conservation policy discourse.

Here the researchers identify 40 questions that, if addressed or answered, would advance research that has a high probability of supporting development of effective policies and management strategies for species, ecosystems, and ecological processes in Canada.

The emphasize was on understanding ecosystems, the effects and mitigation of climate change, coordinating governance and management efforts across multiple jurisdictions, and examining relations between conservation policy and the social and economic well-being of Aboriginal peoples. 

The researcher says the questions they identified provide potential links between evidence from the conservation sciences and formulation of policies for conservation and resource management. 

The researchers stress that their collaborative process of communication and engagement between scientists and decision makers for generating and prioritising research questions at a national level could be a model for similar efforts beyond Canada.