Improving the impact of amphibian conservation programmes

保护科学目前还不能满足保护实践的需要。由于它们的资金来源不同，工作议程也不同，因此科学与实践之间一直存在着不匹配。从业者经常声称科学没有满足他们的需求，而科学家则声称他们的科学成果没有得到重视。因此，需要一个折中方案，由科学家和终端用户共同决定研究目标。同样，随着终端用户更多地与商业、商业和捐赠者接触，而不是与学术界接触，迫切需要将保护计划与衡量成功的财务和组织措施更好地结合起来。这个项目将培训学生解决这两个问题所需的具体和可转移的技能。为了实现这一点，学生将通过案例合作伙伴-伦敦动物学会(ZSL)的商业和慈善活动，在应用研究和保护实施的界面上工作。ZSL目前主办了进化独特和全球濒危(EDGE)两栖动物方案，并打算从2011年起主办两栖动物生存联盟(ASA)--一个由22个全球两栖动物保护参与者组成的联盟。该项目将解决四个相关问题。首先，由于缺乏关于该问题规模的科学数据，两栖动物的有效保护行动正受到阻碍。该项目将通过使用最近开发的建模方法来估计(1)最近两栖动物灭绝的数量和时间，以及(2)仍等待发现的两栖动物物种的数量，从而解决这一问题。其次，在建立了知识差距的总体规模后，学生将继续确定感知到的项目“成功”与有关物种的已发表研究数量之间是否存在正相关关系。第三，由于项目的成功也可能与项目管理有关，学生随后将使用最近开发的商业卓越模式来评估从EDGE和ASA项目中提取的几个正在进行的两栖动物保护项目。第四，利用这三个问题，学生将评估EDGE和ASA项目中的哪些项目将提供最具成本效益的回报，投资于它们的科学和管理资源。该项目包括DICE(两栖动物保护科学方面的专门知识)和ZSL(通过慈善、科学、教育和商业活动促进保护方面的专门知识)之间的伙伴关系。事实上，鉴于ZSL有意从2011年起主办ASA，这一合作伙伴关系非常及时：这将为该学生提供一个前所未有的与全球两栖动物保护界其他成员的接口。作为肯特大学新研究生院的一员，学生将接受技能审计、个人发展计划和适当的可转移技能培训，以补充骰子内的特定科目培训。在ZSL，学生将接受补充技能培训，并将有机会接触到一个蓬勃发展的保护组织的日常工作，该组织的核心使命是在全球范围内促进和实现对动物及其栖息地的保护。该项目的经济和社会影响将通过更有针对性和更具成本效益的资源分配给保护方案来实现。这将直接惠及ZSL作为研究的最终用户的商业和企业活动，并将间接惠及其他可能采用相同程序分配优先事项的保护组织。因此，该项目将通过加强环境可持续性和保护；改善相关组织和公共服务的效力和可持续性；并通过完善管理基于证据的政策制定和影响政策的程序，实现区域合作伙伴关系的影响。

Conservation science is currently not meeting the needs of conservation practice. Because they are funded differently and work to different agendas, there is an ongoing mismatch between science and practice. Practitioners often claim that the science is not meeting their needs, while scientists claim that their scientific results are not heeded. A middle ground is therefore required, where research goals are decided jointly by scientists and end-users. Equally, with end-users interfacing more with business, commerce and donors rather than academia, a better alignment of conservation programmes with financial and organisational measures of success is urgently needed. This project will train a student in the specific and transferable skills needed to address these two issues. To achieve this the student will work at the interface of applied research and conservation implementation through the commercial and charitable activities of the CASE partner - the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). ZSL currently hosts the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) amphibians programme, and from 2011 intends to host the Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA) - a consortium of 22 global players in amphibian conservation. The project will address four related issues. Firstly, effective conservation action for amphibians is being hindered by a paucity of scientific data on the scale of the problem. The project will address this by using recently developed modelling methods to estimate (1) the number and timing of recent amphibian extinctions, and (2) the number of amphibian species still waiting to be discovered. Secondly, having established the overall scale of the knowledge gap, the student will then go on to determine whether there is a positive relationship between perceived project 'success' and the amount of published research on the species concerned. Thirdly, as project success may also be related to project management, the student will then proceed to evaluate several ongoing amphibian conservation projects drawn from the EDGE and ASA programmes using a recently developed business excellence model. Fourthly, drawing upon these three issues, the student will assess which projects within the EDGE and ASA programmes would provide the most cost-effective return on the scientific and management resources invested within them. The project comprises a partnership between DICE (expertise in amphibian conservation science) and ZSL (expertise in promoting conservation through its charitable, scientific, educational and commercial activities). Indeed, the partnership is very timely given the intention of ZSL to host the ASA from 2011: this will provide the student with an unprecedented interface with the rest of the global amphibian conservation community. As a member of the new Graduate School at the University of Kent the student will receive a skills audit, personal development plan and training in appropriate transferable skills, to complement the subject specific training within DICE. At ZSL the student will receive complementary skills training, and will have day-to-day exposure to a thriving conservation organisation whose central mission is 'To promote and achieve worldwide conservation for animals and their habitats'. The economic and societal impact of the project will be achieved through a much more targeted and cost-effective distribution of resources to conservation programmes. This will directly benefit the commercial and enterprise activities of ZSL as an end-user of the research, and will indirectly benefit other conservation organisations who may adopt the same processes for assigning priorities. The project will therefore achieve RCUK impacts through enhancing environmental sustainability and protection; improving the effectiveness and sustainability of relevant organisations and public services; and through refining the processes that govern evidence based policy-making and influencing policies.