Working together to protect biodiversity: processes that generate effective collaboration Lynn Dicks and Bill Sutherland

22 October 2013 How to generate collaboration

• Problem-based – A three stage approach to knowledge exchange • Partnership-based – The Cambridge Conservation Initiative A three-stage approach to knowledge exchange

1 Identify knowledge needs

2 Map existing knowledge

3 Define projects to address the knowledge needs Pollinator conservation - why is knowledge exchange needed?

• Pollinators are declining • Science is rapidly developing • Many organisations are working to save pollinators Working together to protect wild pollinators

Pollinator Conservation Delivery Group set up 2011 55 members 19 research scientists 17 from industry (food, farming, retail) 12 NGOs (conservation, farming or both) 5 from Government 2 from trade associations or similar Stage 1 Identify knowledge needs

• Develop long list (246) of possible knowledge needs, organised as Status, Response, Environmental change, Underlying science • Refine to a priority list (35) at a workshop Priority knowledge needs 35 knowledge needs identified, ranked by end-user scores

1. How important is the diversity of pollinator species to the resilience and reliability of the service?

2. How important are wild pollinators for crop yields?

3. What are the sub-lethal effects of chemicals (pesticides and other environmental pollutants) on wild pollinators?

6. How to train conservations, agronomists and land managers in pollinator conservation.

Source: Dicks et al. (2012). Conservation and Diversity Stage 2 Map existing knowledge What do we already know about the top priority knowledge needs?

KN KN KN KN 1 3 10 9

• 42 people contributed knowledge • 31 documents, files or datasets uploaded • 50-page report drafted – a working document For example...

How important is the diversity of What are the relative contributions pollinator species to the resilience and of wild and managed pollinators to reliability of the pollination service? crop yield?

Bee diversity, but not abundance, Wild bees make up 68-83% of bee was positively related to seed set of visitors to flowering crops in Virginia, pumpkins in Indonesia USA

Hoehn, et al. (2008) Proc. Roy. Soc. B 275, 2283-2291. Adamson et al. (2012) Environ. Entomol. 41, 813-821 Stage 3 Addressing the priority questions

Second workshop

Generate ideas

Build support for projects

Develop winning projects

12 projects One of the twelve projects Environmental Land Management for Pollinators Our approach to knowledge exchange

www.nercsustainablefood.com www.conservationevidence.com

Status Impacts Basic Actions and and and science trends risks responses

Identify Address Map knowledge knowledge knowledge needs needs

Pollinators1 Pollinators Pollinators Projects

Cross Agriculture2 Agriculture Agriculture sectoral Aquaculture3 Pre- competitive Food security4 1. Dicks et al. 2012. Identifying key knowledge needs for evidence-based conservation of wild insect pollinators: a collaborative cross- sectoral exercise. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 6, 435-446. 2. Dicks et al. 2013. What do we need to know to enhance the environmental sustainability of agriculture? A prioritisation of knowledge needs for the UK food system. Sustainability 5, 3095-3115. 3. Jones et al. (submitted) Prioritisation of knowledge-needs for sustainable aquaculture: a national and global perspective, Fish and Fisheries 4. Ingram et al. 2013. Priority research questions for the UK food system. Food Security 5, 617-636. New personal connections made

Of 56 people in the Agriculture Task Force, 28 met an average of 11 new people through the

process. 28 x 11 = 308 308  2 = 154 154 x (56/28) x 4 = 1,232 new connections How to generate collaboration

• Problem-based – A three stage approach to knowledge exchange • Partnership-based – The Cambridge Conservation Initiative CambridgeConservationInitiative

Judge Business School Land Economy Plant Sciences Geography Zoology CPSL

15 Vision

To help secure a sustainable future for biodiversity and humanity through a partnership between leaders in research, education, policy and practice Global reach of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative

Number of Cambridge Conservation Initiative partners active in each country of the world. Cambridge Conservation Initiative activities

• Catalysing collaboration at the research, policy & practice interface

• Building capacity & leadership

• Creating a Conservation Campus in Cambridge The Cambridge Conservation Initiative Collaborative Fund

Supports innovative, collaborative conservation projects undertaken by CCI partners with others

• 19 projects so far, including

– Mapping the impact of agricultural certification schemes – Tools for measuring ecosystem services – Preparing teaching materials for conservation capacity building – Quantifying the costs of delivering targets in the Convention on Biological Diversity Strategic Plan One of the nineteen projects Mapping impacts of agricultural certification schemes

Rainforest Alliance

• Map certified farms in the tropics • Assess how they relate to areas important for biodiversity, frontiers of land clearance, and places with many smallholder farmers

Ben Phalan Another of the nineteen projects How much will the Convention on Biological Diversity cost?

• Halting human-induced extinctions and safeguarding important sites for biodiversity will cost $76.1 per year • Conservation funding will have to increase ten fold

McCarthy et al (2012) Science Secrets to generating effective collaboration

• Equal involvement from different sectors

• Partners work together to identify challenges

• Partnerships facilitated through funding for joint projects (if possible) or a venue for discussion

“Relationships, dialogue and common problem definition*”

Successful, evidence-based conservation

* Lauber et al (2010) Conservation