The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is a partnership between scientists and managers working towards a sustainable global environment and the conservation of biodiversity. The collaboration seeks to synthesise evidence on issues of greatest concern to environmental policy and practice.

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CEE has formal charitable status and its Objects are:
The protection of the environment and conservation of biodiversity through preparation, maintenance promotion and dissemination of systematic reviews of the effects and impacts of environment management interventions, for the public benefit.

Syntheses take the form of systematic reviews providing rigorous and transparent methodology to assess the impacts of human activity and effectiveness of policy and management interventions. This website contains a small but fast growing Library of Environmental Evidence in the form of systematic reviews.

The Collaboration is not for profit and relies on the dedication and enthusiasm of scientists and managers to provide a reliable source of evidence to continuously improve the effectiveness of our actions. 

Please browse our website to find out more and do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or suggestions you might have.

To find out more about the systematic review process and how to author a review, please see our "Information for..." section.

23/01/2012 - Job position at CABI, Wallingford, Oxforshire UK to lead a systematic review on iinvasive species. For more details click here.

22 November 2011 - Job position at the Centre for Evidence Based Conservation, Bangor, UK. To read job advert and get all the details, please click: Job advert

28 September 2011 - International funding for environmental policies based on weak evidence. To read the press release and link to articles and systematic review, please click here

3 September 2011 - Environmental Evidence journal now accepting submission. - The new open-access scientific journal of the Collaboration is now available for publishing your review protocols, completed reviews, methodology papers and much more at www.environmentalevidencejournal.org

18 March 2011 - Job opportunity, BES fellowships (POST), Marie-Curie fellowships for international mobility - Visit the Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation website at www.cebc.bangor.ac.uk (News & Events / job opportunities).

2011 - Our website is undergoing some major restructuring to improve its contents and address your needs and requests. Some pages are still under construction but we will do our best to guide you through all changes and make sure all Review Teams and stakeholders find the information they need. We apologize in advance to all new visitors for any inconvenience. We also welcome all your suggestions, complaints, wishes at
CEE.webmaster@environmentalevidence.org.
Many thanks for your support and understanding.

22 October 2010 - CEE is supporting the current joint call for systematic reviews from the UK Department for International Development, AusAID and 3ie (www.dfid.gov.uk/r4d/
SystematicReviewFeature.asp)
We can help you prepare your application for questions related to environmental management (incl. agriculture) and provide support for the conduct of your systematic review.
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* Call for Subject Editors for the CEE Library Each subject editor will lead in promoting the conduct of systematic reviews among their colleagues and relevant societies by establishing a Subject Review Group...
> Read more...

* Publishing the results of your Systematic Review: CEE encourages authors to publish papers in scientific journals that report outcomes of CEE Systematic Reviews - see list of examples.

28 Sept 2011 - International funding for environmental policies based on weak evidence

Tropical deforestation contributes to climate change, destroys biodiversity and can harm the interests of local people. Community Forest Management (CFM) has been promoted as providing a potential win-win solution (conserving forests while benefitting local communities) and global funders have invested billions of dollars in CFM programmes in developing countries. A study published this week, however, highlights the lack of evidence upon which such investments are made and calls for improved evidence collection in the future.

The study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment suggests that although there is limited evidence that CFM provides some biodiversity benefits in terms of forest protection, evidence for benefit to local communities is generally lacking. The team from the Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation based at Bangor University conducted a systematic review of evidence by examining studies from a highly dispersed literature on the subject. They found that very few studies had been published providing information on CFM performance. Many of those that did had problems with their study design and interpretation.

Andrew Pullin, the senior author on the study says:

“There is some limited evidence that CFM programmes work, but the worrying conclusion is that monitoring and evaluation of many major global environmental programmes is insufficient to establish a clear picture of what works and what doesn’t. Despite having committed substantial resources to these programmes over the last decade or more, we lack the information to inform future funding decisions. CFM programmes are diverse in context and implementation and the reality is most likely that some work and some do not. A better evidence base is needed to help make best use of scarce resources for environmental management”

CFM puts management decisions in the hands of local communities, rather than national or regional government, allowing them to make key decisions about the use of their forests. The assumption is that conferring ownership and responsibility will result in more sustainable use of resources.

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility, one of the major funders of CFM projects, commissioned the systematic review. One of the roles of the Panel is to test the validity of key assumptions underpinning GEF investments, and by so doing assist in improving the quality of future project design.

Julia Jones, one of the authors says “Although we found limited evidence of CFM effectiveness, this does not mean that CFM doesn’t work. There are many anecdotal examples which suggest that it may do. However major investment decisions should be made on more than anecdotal evidence, and large global programmes need to include proper evaluation of their effectiveness in their design.”

More information about this systematic review and the article published out of it, click on the following link:www.environmentalevidence.org/SR48.html