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You are here: Home / Archives for News

News

Conservation Evidence Blog: What Works in Conservation 2021

August 2, 2021 by admin

This week, the sixth edition of Conservation Evidence’s flagship publication, What Works in Conservation, is published. What Works provides a freely-available, comprehensive overview of the expert assessment of evidence for the effectiveness (or not) of management actions collated within Conservation Evidence synopses. It is a freely-available resource for conservation managers, practitioners and policy-makers who want to incorporate evidence into their management decisions.

The exciting addition to What Works in Conservation 2021 is the inclusion of evidence for all mammals, with the addition of the Terrestrial Mammal Conservation and Marine and Freshwater Mammal Conservation synopses, as well as the 2021 update of the Bat Conservation synopsis (the Primate Conservation synopsis was added in 2017). This means that decision-makers working in mammal conservation across the world now have access to a free resource to help inform their work to conserve threatened species.

What’s included?

Flying high – expanding the evidence-base for Bat Conservation

The 2021 edition of What Works includes the results from the assessment of the third annual update of the Bat Conservation synopsis. With new evidence published each year, and summarised in each edition of the synopsis, our revised assessments highlight the value of continually updating the evidence base for conservation. What Works 2021 includes new evidence for 29 conservation actions, 16 of which have changed effectiveness category from What Works 2020 as a result of the newly summarised evidence. This includes 11 actions, ranging from “Use non-lethal measures to prevent bats from accessing fruit in orchards” to “Prevent turbine blades from turning at low wind speeds”, where experts are more certain than previously that the action is beneficial for bats, and two actions where the new evidence remains too limited for a conclusion to be drawn. However, three actions are a little more complex. The use of prescribed burning had previously been assessed as “Likely to be beneficial”, but three new studies have highlighted potential harms, leading to the new assessment concluding there is a trade-off between the benefits and harms to bats of this action. For two other actions, “Deter bats from turbines using ultrasound” and “Breed bats in captivity”, the addition of new studies with mixed results has increased the uncertainty in their effectiveness, changing their assessment category to “Unknown effectiveness” (from “Likely to be beneficial” and “Unlikely to be beneficial”, respectively). This demonstrates the importance of continually building upon a comprehensive, global evidence base, which captures the variation inherent in biological responses to conservation actions.

Deep dive – mixed results for Marine and Freshwater Mammal Conservation

Despite the popularity of whales, dolphins and seals, the Marine and Freshwater Mammal synopsis found a paucity of evidence for many proposed conservation actions. Where evidence does exist, the overall effectiveness of commonly used actions varied. For example, rescuing and releasing stranded or trapped marine and freshwater mammals, and installing exclusion or escape devices for mammals on fishing nets, were found to be beneficial, or likely to be beneficial, respectively. Other actions such as using acoustic devices on fishing gear and hand-rearing orphaned young of marine and freshwater mammals were found to have trade-offs between benefits and harms. Meanwhile, the translocation of marine mammals away from aquaculture systems, with the aim of reducing human-wildlife conflict, was actually found to be ineffective or harmful. This demonstrates the importance of gathering and assessing the available evidence, to improve the effectiveness and cost efficiency of future conservation efforts.

Back on dry land – training marsupials for Terrestrial Mammal Conservation

Reading studies from around the world, and from over 70 years of conservation, we love coming across ingenious tests of conservation actions, as well as ingenious actions themselves. In the Terrestrial Mammal synopsis, we discovered that conservationists in Australia have tested whether naive native mammals can be trained to avoid non-native predators, such as cats and foxes. By comparing “trained” bilbies, which were exposed to a ‘mock attack’ by thrusting a dead cat at them and spraying them with cat urine, with “untrained” bilbies not exposed to an attack, researchers found that despite some evidence for changes in behaviour, there was no increase in long-term survival in the trained group. Our assessment concluded that the evidence for that action was too limited to determine its effectiveness, as there were only two studies and ideally this would be tested on a wider range of target species. The assessment was similar for evidence for training captive-bred mammals.

Bringing it home – conservation in your back garden

Although many conservation actions included in What Works are likely to be carried out by practitioners or policy-makers, some can be implemented by the general public. In the Terrestrial Mammal synopsis, five studies tested the effectiveness of using collar-mounted devices (such as bells and neoprene flaps) to reduce the predation of wild mammals by cats, and the assessment found that overall, this was beneficial. Similar results were found for the same action in the Bird Conservation synopsis, but with only two studies, the evidence was assessed as being too limited to draw conclusions. The ongoing update to the Bird Conservation synopsis may provide more information for future assessments.

What Works in numbers

The additive nature of What Works in Conservation means that this new sixth edition is the largest that we have ever produced – for the first time, we have tipped over 1,000 pages. It provides an assessment of the effectiveness of 2,426 conservation actions, covering the results from 15 Conservation Evidence synopses (six synopses have not yet been assessed). The underlying evidence comes from 5,131 individual scientific papers, reports and book chapters, which have reported the results of their tests of conservation actions. And this isn’t just the result of work by the team at Conservation Evidence: 215 experts, practitioners and academics from all over the world have helped to assess the evidence in What Works in Conservation 2021, and we are enormously grateful to all of them for their extraordinarily valuable contribution to the project.

The first five editions of What Works in Conservation have been read online, downloaded (for free) or purchased as a book from the publisher’s website over 67,000 times. We hope that this sixth edition will generate thousands more reads, as conservationists around the world work to incorporate the evidence for what works in conservation into their decision-making, with the ultimate goal of enabling more effective conservation for the benefit of biodiversity and society.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Conservation, Conservation Evidence, conservationists, what works in conservation

Discovering Dewponds Sussex- Downland Dewponds leapfrog into a wetter future.

July 19, 2021 by Kathy Wormald

The Froglife Trust is extremely pleased to announce that the National Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded it a £249,900 grant for their Discovering Dewponds project. The project will be working with Brighton & Hove City Council and the South Downs National Park Authority to create nine dewponds, working closely with land managers to achieve conservation goals. The project will also be working with local communities to create Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridors, improving local green spaces, parks and school grounds for wildlife. Alongside the habitat work the project will be delivering a wide ranging programme of public engagement including working with local groups to gather wildlife memories.

This project will be addressing the loss of dewponds in the South Downs. It is estimated that 39% of the dewponds in this region have been lost, and many more are no longer visible in the landscape. In addition to reversing these losses the project will raise awareness amongst local residents of the importance of dewponds to wildlife, particularly amphibians. The volunteer training programme will equip volunteers to manage dewponds for wildlife. Froglife will deliver a total of 183 events across the region with over 4,000 residents helping with Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridors and over 600 children benefiting from sessions in schools.

Kathy Wormald, Froglife CEO said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to restore and create dewponds currently missing from the landscape. It is a great opportunity for us to improve the biodiversity value of the South Downs, and to raise nature conservation awareness amongst new audiences.”

Councillor Amy Heley, chair of the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the Froglife Trust to further enhance the opportunities for wildlife living in Stanmer and the Downs.

“I’m also extremely pleased to see the joint work we are doing is supporting more volunteering experiences which contribute to people’s health and wellbeing.”

Jeremy Burgess, who leads landscape and biodiversity for water habitats in the National Park, said: “Dew ponds are an important feature in the landscape of the South Downs National Park and many are part of our cultural heritage, with a long history of sheep grazing and droving”. 

“The ponds are also key for biodiversity, providing a vital source of water in the dry chalk landscape, habitats for aquatic species and drinking and bathing for a wide range of birds and animals.  This wonderful project complements our existing nature recovery work to help restore dew ponds and create a network that will help wildlife, including amphibians, flourish.”

Stuart McLeod, Director England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, says: “We are delighted to support The Froglife Trust’s Discovering Dewponds project and help them to deliver an ambitious scheme that will create nine dewponds, working closely with land managers to achieve important conservation goals. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, local communities will be engaged to improve people’s wellbeing, create Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridors, as well as raise awareness around this natural heritage asset.”

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Conservation, Discovering Dewponds, enviornmental education, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sussex

Work Experience Blog

June 29, 2021 by admin

My name is Katie and I am thankful for having the opportunity to do my work experience at Froglife, the past few days have helped me to learn about both office and practical skills that I may need for future jobs. I have improved my knowledge of how to read and input data such as surveys, and I have also developed my communication skills by helping Briony to deliver sessions in schools.

Monday 21st June 2021: My first day working at Froglife was Monday and the first thing that I did was some office work where I sorted some session feedback. I then sat in a meeting about the conservation of great crested newts with a guest speaker. After that Briony and I headed to Nacro in Peterborough for our first session where they built and painted birdhouses and butterfly houses to put up in the garden. We then came back to the office where I looked through some of Froglife’s photos and created some social media posts.

Tuesday 22nd June 2021: On Tuesday morning I typed up some session feedback and then continued to create a few more social media posts. We then went to a primary school in Whittlesey for our second session of the week where the class were taught about the life cycle of a newt. We then went to the school’s outdoor area where they planted blackthorn tree saplings around the edge and then they built a hibernaculum near the woodland area. Afterwards, we came back to the office where I created a staff survey on survey monkey and then we went for a site visit at Nene Valley community centre before the end of the day.

Wednesday 23rd June 2021: today is my last day of work experience at Froglife and I have done some office work. First I typed up some survey data about reptile conservation into excel and then corrected any errors I made in the survey I created on Monday and then finally I have typed up this blog.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Green Pathways, Peterborough, Whittlesey, Work experience, work placement

Submitting your sightings is now quicker and easier

June 16, 2021 by Kathy Wormald

Froglife’s new and improved Dragon Finder app is here.  The app helps you to identify amphibians and reptiles, find out more about individual species and submit a record of your sighting.  Collecting records is a vital first step in wildlife conservation.  This data provides the evidence needed to protect important sites and alert us to population declines.  

Dragon Finder app users will find all the great features of the original version but now with a simpler process for submitting your records, many technical improvements and compatibility with recent models of mobile phones.  Existing users will simply be asked to update the app the next time they open it.

Froglife submit all the records collected through the Dragon Finder app to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) to be shared publicly on the NBN Atlas.  Many of the improvements that we’ve made to the app and supporting database mean that the records are now in better shape to be submitted to this platform and local biodiversity record centres.  In short this means that the records you submit are now even more valuable.

The Dragon Finder App was first launched in 2014 and is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Amphibians and reptiles are the most threatened species globally and also the least recorded.  For successful conservation of these fascinating creatures we need to understand their national distribution and population trends. 

Froglife’s CEO, Kathy Wormald says “We are delighted to be launching this much needed new version of the app.  To support Froglife’s work conserving UK amphibians and reptiles we ask everyone to download the app and submit their sightings”.

Find out more

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Amphibians, Citizen Science, Dragon Finder App, Froglife, reptiles

New Project: March Forth for Veterans!

June 8, 2021 by Ashlea Mawby

Froglife have a BRAND NEW project: ‘March Forth for Veterans’. This project aims to engage members of the armed forces community in practical conservation work. This includes getting involved in volunteer sessions to ‘re-wild’ their neighbourhoods where they will gain training in habitat management and will work alongside our field worker to build and restore ponds, create wetlands, plant wildflowers, build rockeries and build and install wildlife homes.

In addition, the project will be running a series of tailor-made courses aimed at the armed forces community. These short courses will be of interest to anyone keen on nature and wildlife, but will be of particular benefit to those wishing to start a new career in conservation. 

For further information and contact details, click here.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Conservation, courses, habitat work, veterans, Wildlife

The Road to Success? Experts share research at our Wildlife Road Mortality Conference.

March 11, 2021 by Kathy Wormald

The Road to Success? Experts map route to try and safeguard wildlife in the future (written by Jules Robinson). 

The UK’s planned transformative infrastructure developments must not be at the expense of the countries wildlife, concluded experts at Froglife’s Wildlife Road Mortality Webinar. Wildlife conservationists from around the world came together online at 1pm on 10th March 2021 to discuss their work in relation to mitigating the death of wildlife on our roads.

Froglife’s CEO, Kathy Wormald, introduced the webinar by sharing the work of Froglife over the past 30 years, particularly with regards to Froglife’s ‘Toads on Roads Campaign’ where thousands of volunteers take part each year to help toads and frogs successfully navigate roads on the way back to their spawning ponds to breed. Froglife is also currently running a Wildlife Tunnel Campaign, having undertaken research at a number of highway crossings for smaller wildlife including toads, demonstrating that for relatively small costs, tunnels and grids can be included in road schemes which provide a safe crossing for many other species.  Common Toad populations have declined by an estimated 68% in the last 30 years, and roads are a key factor. Research has also recently shown that in addition to the death of the adults, going to spawn, a few months later there are thousands of small toadlets, migrating from their spawning ponds into the countryside which are killed and not seen. The creation of balancing ponds and drainage ditches next to roads only exacerbates the situation.

Did you know that 1/5 of the Earth’s terrestrial surface is located within 1km of roads and that up to 100million animals die on roads around the world each year?  Badgers and pheasants top the list for the most common mammal and bird species in the UK, according to figures provided by Dr Sarah Perkins, co-ordinator of Project Splatter, a citizen-science monitoring scheme for wildlife vehicle collisions across the UK. Their research has also shown that 95% of the public are interacting with wildlife more by seeing it dead on the roads, than seeing it alive in the wild.

Citizen science proved to be a strong theme throughout. Debobroto Sircar (aka Debo), Head of Species Recovery and Wildlife Crime Control Division, Wildlife Trust of India spoke of the successful launch of RoadWatch, a user-friendly smartphone app that they’ve encouraged members of the public to use, which gathers necessary data such as photographic records, GPS location, type of animal, date of record etc. The app can transmit the data in less than a minute, with minimal effort and has helped them successfully map roadkill hotspots, identifying India’s most affected species so they can instigate mitigation measures, including signs, fencing and road closures at different times of the year. Their ‘#I brake for wildlife’ social media and car sticker campaign has also created awareness and is gradually reducing the incidence of wildlife road kills across the country and signs put up at rail crossings notifying train drivers of elephant corridor areas has also had a huge effect in reducing speed and the number of elephants being hit.

Dr Sean Boyle, a postdoctoral researcher at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, also recognised the importance of engagement and outreach activities, particularly involving youth, and he too mentioned a range of mitigation measures including the closure of roads such as one in Ontario for salamanders to make their yearly migration. He also spoke of recognising road mortality, as not just the roadkill itself seen on the surface of a road, but the ‘Road Effect Zone’ which is the area surrounding the road that an animal won’t approach or go near because of a combination of factors including pollution, light or sound and the fragmentation of habitat. His research has indicated this can be between 2-5km for some species. He also reminded us that we should include the effects of railways on wildlife mortality and the area around the tracks. Following on from his surveys into reducing the harmful impacts of roads and evaluation on the success of fences and crossing structures, he summarised that to best avoid wildlife road mortality humans need to modify their behaviour. Whilst he recommended the use of signage and putting up fencing directing wildlife to tunnels, he also recognised that people who regularly use the same route, initially reacted to the road awareness signs but then became less receptive as they got used to them.  Tunnels are costly and mitigation should be thought of at the time of construction.

Fragmentation was a key concern of both Froglife’s Reptile Project Officer, Ben Harris and author and ecologist Hugh Warwick. Ben spoke of the lack of desperately needed reptile road mortality research in the UK but that European data has indicated that despite the noise and ground vibrations from traffic, reptiles are still susceptible to road collisions, especially on smaller roads when adjacent to their preferred habitat and they may be attracted to the warm tarmac to bask. In the UK adders exist in small numbers so even if 1 or 2 are killed this could lead to a genetic imbalance. He suggested that we may need to adapt and install tunnels that reptiles will use it like the ‘Herpetoduct’ in the Netherlands, to reduce reptile road mortality and help stop fragmentation.

Hugh Warwick, a spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Protection Society, continued with this theme – as he told us that habitat fragmentation is one of the most serious threats to face hedgehogs. Whilst 167-335,000 hedgehogs were killed on the roads in a study undertaken in 2004, the current road kill estimate is 100,000 a year because of the hedgehog populations overall decline. He told us that with a starting population of 32 hedgehogs they would need 90km of unrestricted landscape not fragmented by fences, roads, lakes or ditches (created alongside roads to stop flooding, which can act as pitfalls). He called for all new infrastructure to have eco-ducts built in such as in the Netherlands, the A556 near Knutsford in the UK or the tunnels built over the A3 near Hindhead. “We need to start making our case for the value of nature and how life-giving it is”, he summarised at the end of his presentation which was the final talk.

Professor Roger Downie, Froglife Trustee who hosted the event agreed, “A big message coming loud and clear from to-day’s timely Froglife webinar on ‘Wildlife Mortality on Roads’ was that the UK’s planned transformative infrastructure developments must not be at the expense of the country’s wildlife. Wildlife needs safe routes to travel through our landscapes, and these must be built into all developments.”

Kathy Wormald, Froglife CEO concluded by saying, “We are extremely pleased with how the webinar went today, it has certainly raised the bar for action to be taken to stop the carnage of wildlife death on the worlds roads. Let’s collectively take positive action to bring this matter to a halt.  We know that it is impacting on the sustainability of wildlife across the globe resulting in population declines and in some instances extinction.  Governments need to take this matter seriously and help conservationists to address this issue.”

You can watch a recording of the webinar here: www.froglife.org/webinars

To sign Froglife’s Wildlife Tunnel Campaign please click here. 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Amphibians, Canada, hedgehog, hedgehog preservation society, India, Project Splatter, reptiles, road mortality, UK, Webinar, Wildlife Trust India

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