Environment strategy: behaviour changes needed to achieve Scotland's goals for biodiversity

Appendix A: Literature review protocol

1. Method overview

A rapid, high-level, evidence review will be undertaken. A pragmatic narrative review approach will be carried out in two phases:

• Phase 1 will involve a broad search strategy to identify key behaviours and categorise these into a broad typology (addressing Objective 1).
• Phase 2 will involve targeted searches on specific behaviours to fill gaps on COM-B factors influencing behaviours, the effectiveness of interventions and potential trade-offs and synergies (addressing Objective 2).

Due to the breadth of the topic and the diversity of potential behaviours to be addressed, existing literature reviews are prioritised for inclusion over empirical research papers. Both academic and grey literature sources are included in the review.

2. Phase 1: Broad search to identify key behaviours

Search strategy

Keywords

Biodiversity keywords

biodivers*

conservation

nature-positive

‘nature positive’

‘nature friendly’

Behaviour keywords

behaviour*

behavior*

‘public engagement’

practices

Population keywords

public

consumer

individual*

household

Methodology keywords

review¹

meta-analysis¹

*indicates inclusion of related words with different endings e.g. biodiversity, biodiverse.

¹Further searches not including these terms to be conducted if insufficient material is returned.

Search strategy - Academic literature

Academic sources will be identified through searches on Web of Science and Google Scholar using search terms based on combinations of the keywords in the table above. Where appropriate, search terms will also incorporate ‘NOT’ terms to exclude irrelevant material being returned. No date ranges will be imposed in the first instance, however where large volumes of material are returned, date ranges (such as focusing on literature published in the past 10 years) may be applied. Titles and abstracts will be used to identify potentially relevant material to include in the review. Systematic screening and recording procedures will not take place.

Search strategy - Grey literature

Grey literature will be identified through searches of the websites of key organisations (Scotland, UK, or international). The list of key organisations will be finalised in discussion with Scottish Government colleagues. Searching and screening methods will mirror those described above for the academic literature.

Organisation category

Scottish and UK organisations

Organisations

The Scottish Government; NatureScot; Defra; JNCC; Natural England; Natural Resources Wales; Scottish Wildlife Trust; The Wildlife Trusts; RSPB.

Organisation category

International organisations

Organisations

IPBES; IUCN Behavior change taskforce

Additional sources

Some sources may be identified through snowball sampling, where additional key texts are identified from references in reviewed materials, or flagged by members of the research team or Scottish Government colleagues based on prior knowledge.

Data extraction, recording and analysis

Metadata recording

References and accompanying pdfs or links to reports will be stored in Zotero reference manager. This will allow for automatic recording of source metadata.

Data extraction

Data from the reviewed sources will be extracted into a matrix in Microsoft Excel. The following information will be recorded: Source ID (authorDATE); Source type: Review/empirical; Geographic scope; Population; Methods; Behaviours: Information on particular behaviours or behaviour domains/types and their relative importance; Impacts of behaviours (domestic/international/not discussed?); COM-B (Capabilities, Opportunities, Motivations) factors highlighted; Behavioural interventions highlighted; Behavioural intervention impacts (behavioural, environmental, social, economic); Explicit policy recommendations relevant to behaviours; Other notes.

Analysis

The range of behaviours identified from the review will be assessed to flag those which will not receive further attention, due to falling outside of the scope (e.g. they relate more directly to net zero or circular economy objectives than biodiversity). We will then undertake a qualitative synthesis of the evidence, producing a set of key behaviours which will be categorised into a broad framework or typology.

3. Phase 2: Targeted searches on specific behaviours

Search strategy

The literature reviewed in Phase 1 will be assessed to identify gaps that remain in relation to understanding the high-level COM-B factors influencing each of the key behaviours identified and potential interventions to promote behaviour change. Where gaps are identified, further searches will be conducted using search terms specific to the key behaviours. Depending on the gaps identified, searches may be conducted on Web of Science, Google Scholar, and/or organisational websites (potentially including different organisations to those included in Phase 1).

Analysis

Qualitative synthesis of the literature identified in Phase 2, alongside the relevant literature from Phase 1 will be carried out. This will be used to produce a high-level outline of the COM-B factors known to influence the behaviour, and illustrative examples of the key messages on ‘what works’, and in which contexts, from the reviewed evidence on interventions, along with any evidence on co-benefits or trade-offs for social outcomes.

4. Strengths and limitations of the review methodology

Narrative reviews are appropriate for exploratory research on broad topics such as those of relevance to this project. Whilst narrative reviews are more vulnerable to bias than more systematic approaches such as rapid evidence assessments and may be less comprehensive and transparent, they benefit from greater flexibility in synthesising across varied areas of research within a short timescale. The production of this protocol, with input from Scottish Government colleagues, seeks to embed transparency and good practice principles from more systematic literature review methods as far as possible within the scope of the project.