Masters Dissertation Example

2.2.3 Policy and planning documents 
A case study examination of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) in the US (Noss et al, 1997) 
similarly concluded that science was not being properly utilised. A comprehensive and 
systematic assessment of the HCPs (Harding et al, 2001), however, concluded that in general 
good use was made of the available scientific information, issues only arising when 
information on basic biology and population status, critical in the development of the plans, 
was not available. Similarly, the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) recovery plans have 
undergone a wide assessment of their efficacy. Boersma et al (2001) assessed the 
incorporation of species biology into recovery plans by looking at the extent to which the 
recovery goals reflected the species’ natural history and ecology, and found that generally 
good use was made of scientific information. Conversely, Gerber & Schultz (2001), Tear et al 
(1995) and Clark et al (2002) concluded that information on species biology was insufficiently 
used, and that making threats a primary focus of the recovery plans along with better 
monitoring of species status would improve the scientific basis of the plans (Clark et al, 2002). 
It was also found that the incorporation of academics into the authorship team of the plans 
increased the links to species biology, whereas those authored solely by federal employees 
were lacking (Gerber & Schultz, 2001). In a more global assessment, an analysis of the Rhino 
IUCN/SSC action plan showed only 25% of the references to be from peer-reviewed literature 
(Linklater, 2003), the majority coming from NGO and governmental reports. These studies 
suggest that it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions across a range of action plans. 

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Looking purely at the uptake of scientific information into policy, Turner (2006) reviewed the 
role of conservation science over 30 years of public-lands debates in the US. It was concluded 
that, despite the recent issues surrounding its retraction, science had successfully influenced 
and transformed public discourse on roadless area policy. Progress has also been made 
translating farmland bird research into Agri-environmental schemes and management in the 
UK (Smallshire et al, 2004), and DEFRA has acknowledged the need for integration of 
research into policy goals in a new five year strategy (DEFRA, 2005). Increased evidence of 
links between research and policy can also be seen with the creation of the UK Biodiversity 
Research Advisory Group, which aims to provide advice to both providers and users of 
research in order to meet the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) objectives set under the 
CBD (JNCC, 2007). However, the difficulty of incorporating scientific information adequately 
into policy has been noted (Healy & Ascher, 1995).