Evidence

alloporus provides pragmatic review, analysis, and interpretation of scientific evidence for environmental policy, practice, and investment

specializing in answers to natural resource management, biodiversity, and carbon offsets questions our services include

Evidence reviews
Environmental policy development and review
Data interpretation
Environmental monitoring, evaluation and reporting [MER] services
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Evidence reviews

an evidence review is a quick but thorough evaluation of available scientific knowledge on an environmental question — they are an easy way for decision makers and advocates to access, collate and evaluate research knowledge that may otherwise be hard to find and interpret

as independent advice, evidence reviews are not constrained by the conventional wisdom or current opinion — they are designed to be objective and pragmatic to reflect available evidence

key steps

refine and interpret the question(s)
complete key word searches of published scientific literature
evaluate quality and relevance of the published evidence with evidence hierarchies
review the relevance, applicability, and inference to the question(s)
prepare advice

output is an independent evidence review as a short report that answers the question based on available evidence

Recent evidence reviews

Will ‘natural sequence farming’ rehabilitate farms?
What new directions will enable sustainable use of NSW soils?
What is the evidence for ecological benefits of clearing of invasive native shrubs?
What are the issues for the management of a) feral deer, b) feral horses, c) feral cats, and d) bird pests?
What are the design issues for small-scale aquaponics systems?
Does community support reduce farmer suicide rates in Australia?
What is best practice analysis of groundwater hydrographs?
What are the assumptions in a risk based economic response to natural disasters?

usually 2 to 5 days

maximum turnaround time of 4 weeks

Environmental policy development and review

alloporus provides evidence-based environmental policy development and evaluation for jurisdictions where policy instruments are technical or benefit from independent interpretation

we are especially interested in resolving natural resource and land use trade-offs, paddock to plate solutions, and landscape scale public-private options

previous policy evaluations include

Biodiversity legislation review, NSW Government
Environmental Outcomes Assessment Methodology, NSW Government
Private Native Forestry legislative review, NSW Government
Tourism policy, Government of Botswana

from 2 to 10+ days work
turnaround is weeks to months
please contact us for a quote

Data interpretation

environmental issues often force decisions from patchy, incomplete and poorly replicated data

difference, trend and cause-effect questions in time and space are often answered without knowing if the available information is up to the task — is there enough data of sufficient quality to meet the desired level of inference?

over many years alloporus has gathered data analysis and interpretation skills to provide independent advice on inference and data needs

we evaluate data interpretation needs of environmental projects through

use of evidence hierarchies
review of statistical testing requirements
parametric and non-parametric univariate difference and trend statistics
parametric and non-parametric multivariate statistics
spatial analysis and interpolation methods [geostatistics]
spatial mapping and analysis [GIS]
various specialised predictive models [eg FullCAM, CENTURY, APSIM]

we are especially keen on non-parametric permutation methods that reduce the need for the use of formal distributions and we always allow analyses to be driven by the project question

we also follow the core principle that interpretation is everything — because no amount of analysis is enough unless it leads to an interpretation and understanding of the environmental challenge

usually 2 to 10 days workmaximum turnaround time of 12 weeks

maximum turnaround time of 12 weeks

contact alloporus for a quote

Environmental monitoring, evaluation, and reporting

alloporus builds reliable and cost-effective MER designs for natural resource management, carbon credits, environmental values (including biodiversity) and environmental impact assessment projects

we understand the need to balance scientific rigour with practicality and the pragmatism required of real world budgets

our MER designs begin with decisions on the level of inference, scope, scale, and budget and then we select a combination of measurement variables that will generate reliable indicators — we include data analysis and interpretation in the design

ver 70 scientific publications from ecological and biodiversity research, together with more than 50 technical reports and fieldwork on three continents have given us the experience to understand the best approaches to environmental field programs

teaching experience means we can also train teams to undertake fieldwork

previous large-scale MER designs include
land systems as surrogates for biodiversity, NSW
monitoring for non-target effects of tsetse fly eradication in northern Botswana
effect of logging on biodiversity, NSW
carbon and co-benefits monitoring for carbon forest projects, Papua New Guinea
portfolio development for carbon forest projects, Indonesia

survey and experimental design projects vary in size — turnaround is weeks to months

please contact us for a quote

Report upgrades

many environmental reports do not do justice to the hard work and dedication of the staff that collect the data

reports often benefit greatly from independent review becoming clearer and more focused on desired outcomes

alloporus can undertake independent evidence-based review and evaluation of environmental reports that covers

interpretation of the question(s)
the integrity and relevance of known science
the quality of the data
relevance, applicability and implementation of the data analysis
reliability of the interpretation and conclusions
where there are problems alloporus provides suggestions for improvements and can implement additional analyses and literature review where needed