Wednesday, July 8, 2026

4:30 PM - 6:00 PM

Room C2

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Details

Evidence-based conservation depends not only on generating new data, but on understanding and synthesising what we already know. Global and regional literature reviews have become indispensable tools for identifying research gaps, highlighting biases, and informing more equitable and effective biodiversity conservation research strategies. By systematically integrating empirical research, such reviews and meta-analyses provide clarity in a fragmented knowledge landscape, revealing where conservation actions are most needed, which taxa or regions are overlooked, and how socio-economic and governance contexts drive research and conservation attention. This symposium explores how synthesis-driven approaches can contribute to more effective biodiversity conservation. Through examples of recent global and regional reviews, we will illustrate how such syntheses expose structural imbalances in research effort and data availability, and how they can form the foundation for more coordinated, inclusive, and strategic conservation planning. Presentations will highlight the diversity of review approaches — from global meta-analyses to regional evidence maps — and discuss their potential to guide conservation and research priorities. Finally, the symposium will look ahead to the future of evidence synthesis. As the volume of conservation research expands exponentially, AI-based tools are transforming how we collect, screen, and update evidence. These advances open the door to “living reviews”: continuously updated, collaborative platforms that allow conservation science to respond rapidly to emerging challenges and opportunities. By examining both current practice and future potential, this session will highlight how global and regional reviews are not just academic exercises, but essential instruments for effective, equitable, and adaptive biodiversity conservation. The symposium will feature five 10-minute talks, each followed by a 3-5 minute question-and-answer session. The talks will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion aimed at uncovering the potential of synthesis approaches as an efficient tool to guide future conservation and research priorities.

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Speakers and Presentation Titles

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Organiser