What we do

Discovering what works and why.

The Alliance for Conservation Evidence and Sustainability (ACES) is an NGO-led collaboration focused on generating, synthesizing, and using evidence for community-based conservation (CBC). ACES formed in 2016 to design a shared, holistic approach for understanding the establishment, sustainability, and scaling of CBC.  

Knowledge on the establishment, sustainability, and scaling of CBC is often case-specific and used inconsistently to inform decisions. To address this, ACES developed a conceptual framework that integrates foundational social science theory to provide a holistic theory of change for CBC. Over the last several years, ACES has put the framework to the test in 8 countries in 3 learning projects, exploring how different types of data can be used to understand these three critical components of CBC.

This learning project portfolio provides a critical anchor for the collaborative: Each project is designed to leverage existing collaborations and partnerships within and among ACES partners and to rapidly generate, synthesize, and use evidence on CBC in practice. ACES partners have also begun to understand the mechanisms through which insights can effectively inform decision-making.

In 2020, ACES begins a second phase of work. In this phase, we will implement a new set learning projects and convene a working group that brings together scientists and practitioners to distill ACES-generated evidence into a set of clear, actionable strategies for technical support organizations and community-based organizations.

By convening conservation stakeholders around evidence, knowledge, and decision-making for CBC, ACES will continue to grow and incubate a collaborative committed to translating knowledge into action in conservation.