Abstract
All forms of population health management are increasingly expected to base their decisions on evidence. But the reality is that few people make their decisions on scientific evidence alone. Wildlife population health practitioners need to distill evidence from research, context, and experience and use that evidence to inform and improve decisions. There are three general types of evidence needed for health management decisions; (1) evidence specific to the decision-making social, biological, and ecological context; (2) evidence extracted from other settings or situations; and (3) evidence pertaining to the values and expectations of the decision makers and those affected by the decision. Evidence-based decision-making is not merely using formal research findings to support your position. It is about having skills in weighing various types of evidence, facilitating appropriate use of evidence, combining various sources of evidence, and providing supplementary evidence appropriate to the local context. Wildlife population health practitioners need to embrace the reality of how decisions are made and develop collaborative and transparent processes to ensure a shared view that is tailored to the decision-making context on what is known about a problem and the implications of different action options.
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Stephen, C. (2022). Evidence-Based Decision-Making. In: Stephen, C. (eds) Wildlife Population Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90510-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90510-1_8
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