Assessing Conservation Management’s Evidence Base: a Survey of Management-Plan Compilers in the United Kingdom and Australia ANDREW S. PULLIN ∗ AND TERI M. KNIGHT† ∗ Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation, School of Biosciences, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom, email a.s.pullin@bham.ac.uk †Solihull Primary Care Trust, Mell House, Solihull B91 3BU, United Kingdom Abstract: Conservation management is becoming increasingly resource intensive as threats to biodiversity grow through habitat destruction, habitat disturbance, and overexploitation. To achieve successful conserva- tion and sustainable use of natural resources, we need to scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of conservation interventions and provide an efficient framework through which scientific evidence can be used to support decision making in policy and practice. We conducted the first formal assessment of the extent to which scien- tific evidence is used in conservation management through a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews of compilers of protected-area management plans from major conservation organizations within the United Kingdom and Australia. Our survey results show that scientific information is not being used systematically to support decision making largely because it is not easily accessible to decision makers. This, in combination with limited monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness of management interventions, results in the majority of decisions being based on experience rather than on evidence. To address this problem we propose using an evidence-based framework adapted from that used in the health services and explain how we are currently putting an equivalent framework into practice by establishing review and dissemination units to serve the conservation sector. Key Words: biodiversity conservation, conservation policy, decision support, environmental management, sys- tematic review Evaluaci´ on de la Base de Evidencias de la Gesti´ on de Conservaci´ on: un Sondeo de Compiladores de Planes de Gesti´ on en el Reino Unido y Australia Resumen: La gesti´ on de la conservaci´ on se esta tornando cada vez m´ as intensiva a medida que las amenazas a la biodiversidad aumentan mediante la destrucci´ on y perturbaci´ on del h´ abitat y la sobreexplotaci´ on. Para tener ´ exito en la conservaci´ on y el uso sustentable de los recursos naturales, necesitamos evaluar la efectividad de las acciones de conservaci´ on cient´ ıficamente y proporcionar un marco eficiente para que la evidencia cient´ ıfica pueda ser usada para apoyar la toma de decisiones pol´ ıticas y pr´ acticas. Realizamos la primera evaluaci´ on formal del grado en que la evidencia cient´ ıfica es utilizada en la gesti´ on de conservaci´ on mediante la aplicaci´ on de un cuestionario y entrevistas a compiladores de planes de gesti´ on de ´ areas protegidas de las principales organizaciones de conservaci´ on en el Reino Unido y Australia. Nuestros resultados muestran que la informaci´ on cient´ ıfica no esta siendo utilizada sistem´ aticamente para apoyar la toma de decisiones principalmente porque no es f´ acilmente accesible a los tomadores de decisiones. Esto, combinado con el limitado monitoreo y evaluaci´ on de la efectividad de las intervenciones de gesti´ on, resulta en que la mayor´ ıa de las decisiones se basan en la experiencia y no en la evidencia. Para atender este problema proponemos la utilizaci´ on de un marco basado en evidencias adaptado del que se utiliza en servicios de salud y explicar como Paper submitted October 26, 2004; revised manuscript accepted December 21, 2004. 1989 Conservation Biology 1989–1996 C 2005 Society for Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00287.x