Effective engagement of conservation scientists with decision-makers

This chapter offers advice on how the conservation science community can effectively engage with decision-makers. The rationales for why we, as scientists, need to do this have been widely discussed in the literature. Often, the reasons offered are normative, pragmatic, or instrumental (de Vente, 2016); in other words, there is a belief that engaging with decision-makers leads to better informed, more acceptable decisions. Indeed, better engagement may lead to the greater uptake of evidence for conservation decisions, something which some scholars argue is a priority for effective management (e.g. Gardner et al., 2018; Sutherland and Wordley, 2017)

Health Insurance Coverage among Youth and Young Adults with Work Limitations

This paper explores health insurance coverage trends for youth (age 15-18) and young adults (age 19-29) with work limitations using data from the Current Population Survey. In 2000 those in the young work-limited population were substantially more likely to have insurance coverage than their counterparts in the not work-limited population. They were much more likely to have public coverage and much less likely to have only private coverage. Insurance coverage for this population increased substantially between 1989 and 2000, in contrast to a decline for the not work-limited population. We discuss the probable contributions of policy reforms and the decline in employment of people with work limitations to these trends

The case for policy-relevant conservation science.

Drawing on the "evidence-based" (Sutherland et al. 2013) versus "evidence-informed" debate (Adams & Sandbrook 2013), which has become prominent in conservation science, I argue that science can be influential if it holds a dual reference (Lentsch & Weingart 2011) that contributes to the needs of policy makers whilst maintaining technical rigor. In line with such a strategy, conservation scientists are increasingly recognizing the usefulness of constructing narratives through which to enhance the influence of their evidence (Leslie et al. 2013; Lawton & Rudd 2014). Yet telling stories alone is rarely enough to influence policy; instead, these narratives must be policy relevant. To ensure that evidence is persuasive alongside other factors in a complex policy-making process, conservation scientists could follow 2 steps: reframe within salient political contexts and engage more productively in boundary work, which is defined as the ways in which scientists "construct, negotiate, and defend the boundary between science and policy" (Owens et al. 2006:640). These will both improve the chances of evidence-informed conservation policy.This work is taken from a PhD project in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/I901957/1) and by a Homerton College Charter Scholarship. I thank S.E. Owens, C. Sandbrook, T. Pryke, H. Allen, and reviewers for their comments on previous drafts.This is the final published version. It first appeared online in Conservation Biology, 2014, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12444/abstract;jsessionid=ED92470E2D83FDD64FF1ADA394FE9635.f03t02

Trends in Outcomes for Young People with Disabilities: Are We Making Progress?

This paper uses the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1981-2000 to compare long term trends in socio-economic outcomes for youth (aged 15-21) and young adults (aged 22-29) with work limitations to those for youth and young adults without work limitations. We focus on the years 1988 and 1999: years that roughly correspond to the peaks of successive business cycles. We find that prevalence of work limitations declined for males but increased for females, mostly accounted for by growth for African American females. Despite a substantial reduction in the educational attainment gap between young adults with and without disabilities, gaps in employment, earnings, dependency on public programs and poverty widened substantially. These trends could be due to factors that determine whether individuals report themselves to be work-limited, factors that affect individual outcomes regardless of self-reported work limitation status, or both sets of factors

Lightning rods, earthquakes, and regional identities: towards a multi-scale framework of assessing fracking risk perception

Hydraulic fracturing has provided a persistent, polarizing, and highly politicized source of controversy internationally, and in numerous national contexts for just under a decade. This research uses fracking operations in New Zealand as a vignette through which to understand the underlying causes of controversy and the appropriateness of attempts to address them. A multi-method approach using interviews (n=25), diagrammatic analysis, and newsprint media was applied to evidence two major findings. Firstly, previous attempts to explain fracking controversy based on social constructivist theory lack a multi-scalar approach to the assessment of factors that influence risk perceptions. It is found that risk perception surrounding fracking in New Zealand reflects intra-scalar interactions between factors originating at the international, national, regional and local scale. Secondly, there is a concerning absence of critique pertaining to the concept of ‘social license to operate’ (SLO), which has been advocated both internationally and nationally as an appropriate form of stakeholder engagement. This paper contributes to the SLO outcomes literature by establishing a need to consider multi-scalar influences on risk perception when explaining diverse SLO outcomes in communities where fracking operations are prospective or already taking place.David Richards Travel Scholarship; Jesus College Travel Grant; Bedford Travel Grant; Mary Euphrasia Mosley, Sir Bartle Frere & Worts Travel Funds. NERC/ESRC Data, Risk and Environmental Analytical Methods (DREAM) Centre, Grant/Award Number: NE/M009009/

Making the best of a pest: the potential for using invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) biomass as a supplement to commercial chicken feed.

Invasive non-native species frequently occur in very high densities. When such invaders present an economic or ecological nuisance, this biomass is typically removed and landfill is the most common destination, which is undesirable from both an economic and ecological perspective. The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, has invaded large parts of Europe and North America, and is routinely removed from raw water systems where it creates a biofouling nuisance. We investigated the suitability of dried, whole zebra mussels as a supplement to poultry feed, thus providing a more attractive end-use than disposal to landfill. Measurable outcomes were nutrient and energy composition analyses of the feeds and production parameters of the birds over a 14 day period. Zebra mussels were a palatable feed supplement for chickens. The mussel meal contained high levels of calcium (344.9 g kg(-1)), essential for egg shell formation, which was absorbed and retained easily by the birds. Compared with standard feed, a mussel-supplemented diet caused no significant effects on production parameters such as egg weight and feed conversion ratio during the study period. However, protein and energy levels in the zebra mussel feed were much lower than expected from the literature. In order for zebra mussels to be a viable long-term feed supplement for poultry, flesh would need to be separated from the shells in an economically viable way. If zebra mussels were to be used with the shells remaining, it seems that the resultant mussel meal would be more suitable as a calcium supplement.This research project was funded through a Natural Environment Research Council CASE studentship to CM and DCA grant number [NE/H018697/1] in partnership with Anglian Water.This is the final published version. It's also available from Springer at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00267-014-0335-6