Descent with modification: critical use of historical evidence for conservation

The clear evidence of the accumulating impacts of anthropogenic actions on the Earth system is driving researchers to look to historical data as a resource for understanding the present and predicting the future. In the conservation science literature, using historical sources usually refers to data mining ‘the past’ using the scientific methods of historical ecology. This paper considers the often overlooked methodological challenges of sourcing and interpreting historical data. A schema is provided for conservation scientists, summarising the kinds of questions and metadata required to work rigorously with historical data. This will improve the accuracy of the data we use to construct trends to inform our understanding of the conservation status of particular species and ecosystems. It will also deepen our understanding of the interplays of factors influencing policy and management in particular social-ecological contexts