Form vs Function

Scientific data is crucial for making informed conservation decisions as it provides objective, evidence-based insights into ecosystem health, species populations, and environmental trends. This data helps identify critical habitats, assess threats, and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation strategies. However, survivorship bias can skew these decisions. It occurs when conclusions are drawn only from data on surviving species or ecosystems, or successful strategies, ignoring those that have failed. More broadly the concept can also be extended to expectations for conservation success, with a focus on undisturbed or traditionally conserved ecosystems excluding altered and novel ecosystems that reflect current ecological conditions, exhibit ecological function yet diverge from natural states. Both outcomes highlight the importance of using complete data to understand the whole picture, leading to conservation planning based on realistic expectations, rather than misinformed strategies resulting in resource misallocation. Our aim is to build the world's best biodiversity credit market, one that recognises the true value of nature, results in an equitable distribution of benefits and empowers local communities along the way!