SCB Policy Approval Process

The policy program welcomes member suggestions for policy statements. Many of SCB's policy statements originate with our members around the world, however, as a global society, no member or group may issue a policy statement on behalf of the Society without prior approval from the SCB Policy Committee. If you would like SCB, a Section, Working Group, or Chapter to issue a policy statement, you must follow the SCB Policy Approval Process.

Standards for SCB Policy Statements

SCB strives to ensure that all of its policy statements are of high quality. Therefore, a proposal for a policy statement that is specific, well-developed, and scientifically-supported has a greater chance of being approved than a generalized proposal without scientific support. 

The SCB policy program can assist you in developing and refining a proposed policy statement.  In fact, most policy statements go through weeks or months of work, revisions, and editing before they are submitted to the Policy Committee for approval. Accordingly, we encourage you to CONTACT us if you believe SCB should issue a statement on a particular policy issue.  Because most policy statements are smaller in scope than the global scale, you should also consider contacting the president and/or policy chair of the appropriate SCB regional section to see if they have interest in working on your policy proposal. More information on who to contact can be found here. 

A proposed policy statement that meets the following criteria is more likely to be approved:

  1. The statement is based on scientific literature published in Conservation Biology or other peer-reviewed journals.
  2. The statement is written in clear, objective language that is appropriate for conservation researchers, managers, and policy makers.
  3. The statement is consistent with the policy priorities of SCB or one of SCB's regional sections.
  4. The statement does not conflict with previous SCB policy statements.

Overview of the SCB Policy Approval Process


Once your proposed policy statement is fully developed, it must be approved by the section or global SCB policy committee. Depending on whether the scope of the issue is regional (specific to one section [or working group]) or global, the SCB board has established two paths by which a proposed policy statement can be approved: (1) review by the section policy committee (or section board, depending on the section bylaws), or (2) review by the global policy committee. 
 
Unless your proposal is clearly of global scope, you should typically first communicate with the policy chair or president of your section or working group. The section policy chair, in consultation with the global policy chair, will then decide whether the section or global approval process is most appropriate.
 
All approved SCB policy statements are then posted to the policy section of SCB's website.

Click HERE to see a flow diagram outlining the approval process.

Click HERE for the formal policy approval process as adopted by the SCB Board of Governors.