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In the field of biodiversity conservation, there is a growing need for research to translate to real-world impacts. Currently there exists a gap between research outcomes and on the ground action, commonly referred to as the knowledge-action gap. Previous research has focused on identifying the causes of the gap, but less research has focused on how to bridge it. We conducted an online survey with conservation researchers and practitioners to identify barriers in the science-to application pipeline and to understand how potential solutions would need to account for their information needs and workflows. Through a qualitative analysis of the open-ended survey responses, we found that information about tools and approaches to address conservation challenges is needed, but decision makers also need information to help them account for context specific barriers and opportunities. Solution-specific information alone, however, is often insufficient for practitioners, who also require the resource capacity and capable personnel to work with that information. Word of mouth and scholarly databases are the most common ways of learning about new tools and techniques, but lack of time, funding and personnel are barriers to implementing them. In addition, respondents identified a need for increased engagement with the conservation social sciences. We argue that a user-centered design approach should underpin any proposed solution to the gap and suggest that an online tool could be one effective solution.

The planning and implementation of infrastructure projects is a long-term enterprise that involves debates over the many positive and negative impacts. Previous work has examined questions about conditions for effective environmental governance of infrastructure, but has typically focused on individual projects and short time frames. We therefore pursued an historical approach to environmental governance of infrastructure projects across multiple cases, taking up examples of highways and dams in the Amazon. Through multi-stakeholder workshops, conservation partners developed historical timelines of events concerning governance of infrastructure in four regions within the basin. Timelines permit analysis to identify periods of particular dynamism, improvements and declines in governance effectiveness, identification of influential stakeholders and events, and conditions that define the effectiveness of governance. We conclude with lessons within and across cases about conditions and strategies for effective environmental governance of infrastructure.