Inspire4Nature fellow Sean Jellesmark led a new article entitled A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations, co-authored by Malcolm Ausden, Tim M. Blackburn, Richard D. Gregory, Mike Hoffmann, Dario Massimino, Louise McRae and Piero Visconti.
Measuring how conservation actions impact target populations is impeded by a lack of appropriate control groups. In this study, the authors demonstrate how counterfactual control groups can be created from monitoring data and apply this approach to evaluate the impact of wetland reserves on breeding trends for five wetland bird species.
Jellesmark, S., Ausden, M., Blackburn, T.M., Gregory, R.D., Hoffmann, M., Massemino, D., McRae, L., Visconti, P. (2021) A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13692