Evidence Champions: growing a movement for effective conservation

This blog post was written by Dr Rebecca Smith, Conservation Evidence Manager in the Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.

Every conservation decision involves uncertainty. Which action will have the greatest impact? Which approaches are worth investing in? And how can we learn from both successes and failures?

The Evidence Champion programme was created by Conservation Evidence to help organisations address these questions by embedding evidence use into everyday decision making and encouraging practitioners to test actions, learn from the results and share what works (and what doesn’t). 

The programme has brought together a growing network of organisations committed to strengthening the use of evidence in conservation. More than 60 organisations are now Evidence Champions, spanning practitioners, funders, journals and others. A further 15 organisations, including the RSPB, are currently in the process of, or working towards, applying.

Why become an Evidence Champion?

Being an Evidence Champion is about much more than recognition. It’s an opportunity to learn alongside other organisations, share successes and failures, and develop new ways of improving conservation practice. Evidence Champions benefit from: 

• Access to a supportive network committed to improving the effectiveness of conservation practice.
• Opportunities to share successes, failures and lessons learned.
• Support to develop evidence skills, from finding and assessing evidence to generating and applying it in practice.
• Access to practical tools, training, and free resources to help embed the generation and use of evidence in their work.
• Opportunities to foster collaborations: for example, the Evidence Toolkit was created by Evidence Champions working together to identify barriers to using evidence and to co-design solutions.

Read about some of the organisations who have become Evidence Champions here.

How to become an Evidence Champion

Becoming an Evidence Champion means making a commitment, as an organisation, to strengthen evidence-based decision making and practice. Practitioner organisations can join the community by demonstrating that they fulfil at least four criteria from our evidence use checklist. Funders need to meet at least one criterion from the funder evidence use checklist. These organisations sign an agreement to embed evidence-based practice in their work. 

Journals can also become Evidence Champions by helping to strengthen the evidence base for conservation. As part of their commitment, journals agree to ask authors who have tested conservation interventions to explain how their test builds on existing studies, or how it helps address knowledge gaps. 

Other organisations can become Evidence Champions by linking to specific action and study pages of the Conservation Evidence database from their own databases. For example, individual species’ assessment pages on the IUCN Red List website include a link to relevant actions on the Conservation Evidence website; this allows users to move from information about a species’ conservation status to scientific evidence about the effectiveness of possible conservation interventions for that species. 

Each new Champion brings valuable experience and helps build a stronger evidence culture within conservation.

Evidence Champions are building on their progress

An annual review helps Evidence Champions reflect on their progress, showcase how they have embraced new opportunities to strengthen their evidence-based practice, and identify opportunities for further development. Focusing on our practitioner Champions, the results from 2026 are particularly encouraging: of the 11 Champions reviewed so far, we are delighted to see that seven have achieved additional evidence-use criteria since last year, demonstrating their strong commitment to continuous improvement and evidence-informed practice. Others are actively refining their approaches and developing new ways of effectively engaging with evidence over the coming year.

Evidence in action: from principles to practice

Our Evidence Champions are leading the way putting evidence-based conservation into practice. Across the network, organisations are developing approaches that fit their own contexts. For example: 

• Using the Evidence-to-Decision-Tool, or adapted versions, when planning projects to guide staff through evidence gathering, assessment and use, to transparently justify decisions about conservation actions.
• Introducing checklists to ensure projects and management plans are based on current evidence.
• Developing evidence-based guidance for the wider conservation community using the Principles for the production of evidence-based guidance for conservation actions. 
• Supporting development of skills related to evidence use, through competency frameworks and training resources. For example, the Wildlife Trust’s Evidence Competency Framework Personal Insights Tool was developed as part of the Wildlife Trust Evidence Emergency project, in collaboration with Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, the Data Management Association and Conservation Evidence. The tool is helping conservation professionals identify their evidence skills, pinpoint development opportunities and access the training they need to build confidence in evidence-based practice. 
• Identifying opportunities to test management actions and to publish results, such as the impact of deer repellent spray for protecting coppice re-growth from browsing, different types of den boxes for pine martens, or different on-reserve signs to reduce dog disturbance on ground-nesting birds.

Connecting, learning, inspiring (and eating)

In January 2026, Evidence Champions joined the wider conservation community at our two-day Delivering Effective Conservation event, co-hosted with the Centre for Science and Policy and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. Practitioners (blog), funders (blog), policy makers and researchers came together to share experiences, discuss challenges and successes in using and generating evidence, and explore topics such as embedding evidence use within organisations and the role of AI in conservation policy and practice. All presentations are available online. 

Day one of the event was exclusively for Evidence Champions (40 attended) and chief scientists. On day two, more than 500 participants joined in person and online. 

A key outcome was a series of commitments from organisations including Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Forestry England, Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology, several Wildlife Trusts, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and UK Business & Biodiversity Forum. Participants committed to take ideas and actions back to their organisations that will help make conservation more effective.

Feedback from delegates was overwhelmingly positive. Evidence Champions particularly valued the opportunity to meet and share ideas with fellow Champions, as well as network with a wide range of other delegates. The event was also described as useful, thought-provoking and inspiring. Due to popular demand, we hope to run a similar event next year.

Become an Evidence Champion!

The Evidence Champion network continues to grow, but there is still more to do. Building a culture of evidence-based conservation is a shared effort. Every organisation that commits to using, generating and sharing evidence helps the conservation community learn faster and make better decisions.

We look forward to welcoming more champions in the year ahead!

If your organisation is interested in becoming an Evidence Champion, please get in touch to find out more: info@conservationevidence.com