Quick facts
Industry: Government
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organization based in the UK that promotes conservation and protection of birds and the environment. Visit its website at rspb.org.uk.
How it uses SAS® Analytics
Technologies: SAS Analytics, SAS Visual Data Discovery
The RSPB has long witnessed the effects of human impact on the environment, but without statistics or hard scientific evidence, it's a struggle to enact new policies that can protect endangered birds. RSPB turned to SAS to not only help it understand the massive amounts of data it collects, but also deliver solid evidence that validates its research.
Striving to make sense of large amounts of complex data – and add validity to research.
- Unearthing insights from big data is the first step toward developing new conservation solutions. RSPB needed analytics technology to help it analyze the data it collected – and use the resulting information to establish new policies.
- Producing scientific evidence to support its theories helps the RSPB make a stronger case when advocating for new policies. Since solid data is more convincing than anecdotes, RSPB required analytics to add more credibility to its findings.
With SAS®, researchers can more effectively enact change to protect the environment.
- Land managers, governments and businesses consult with the society before building infrastructure and energy projects that could harm endangered birds. The society also uses its big data to manage 200 nature reserves.
- Backed by research and analytics, conservationists have a better understanding of specific bird behaviors, including nesting, foraging, reproduction and breeding.
SAS® Analytics eliminates guesswork and delivers solid evidence to support theories.
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Conservation efforts take flight with analytics
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds uses SAS® to help safeguard wildlife
Commercial fishing lines accidentally snagging albatrosses. Pesticides sprayed near skylark nests. Warming ocean temperatures killing off the food that gannets and kittiwakes depend on. The United Kingdom’s largest nature conservation charity, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), is using analytics to better understand the data it collects in an effort to test and develop conservation solutions that protect endangered birds. This information is also critical when advocating for environmental policies in the UK and abroad.
“Conservation informed by evidence is always more likely to succeed than that based on guesswork or anecdote,” says Will Peach, Head of Research Delivery for RSPB. “SAS enables us to produce the firm scientific evidence needed to confidently implement our initiatives.” The society’s scientific approach is a success: Governments and companies seek its research and advice when planning new infrastructure and energy projects like highways, wind farms and airport runways.
The society’s research underpins the understanding around how intensive farming, climate change and overfishing in the oceans affects bird habitats and food supplies. Its research on the albatross population discovered that large-scale, commercial longline fishing kills tens of thousands of albatrosses each year. Out of the world's 22 albatross species, 17 have been identified as threatened. In the UK, once-common species like house sparrows and starlings have suffered large population declines in both rural and urban areas.
RSPB researchers conduct diagnostic studies using tagging and other types of methods that produce enormous amounts of data. They also test different conservation interventions to determine which techniques are most effective for different species. Replicated field experiments are also combined with simulation studies.
“We need to make sense of a variety of large and complex data sets,” Peach says. “For example, tracking the movements of kittiwakes and gannets as they forage at sea produces millions of data points.”
We need to make sense of a variety of large and complex data sets; for example, tracking the movements of kittiwakes and gannets as they forage at sea produces millions of data points.Will Peach Head of Research Delivery
“We need to make sense of a variety of large and complex data sets,” Peach says. “For example, tracking the movements of kittiwakes and gannets as they forage at sea produces millions of data points.”
The organization chose SAS more than a decade ago. The research has led conservationists to:
- Understand the impact of farm lands and pesticides on nesting and reproduction among skylarks and yellowhammers. Changes in cropping affect skylark nesting, while pesticide use affects yellowhammers’ breeding success.
- Study albatross foraging habits and use the information to develop fast-sinking fishing hooks, which reduce albatross deaths from long-line fishing.
- Gather data from tags worn by birds and merge that with external data sets on sea-surface temperatures and the location of fishing grounds to understand the impact of global warming on foraging areas.
“Scientific research is extremely fast-moving,” Peach says. “SAS will undoubtedly continue to be integral in our pursuit of evidence-based conservation actions needed to help save our birds and wildlife.”
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