Update on recent events and upcoming symposia

[Tanya O'Garra]

Dear IEWG community,

It’s been an incredibly busy and exciting time for the IEWG board, and we are long overdue for an update! So here goes:

SCB Asia Congress (#CACN2026) in Kathmandu

IEWG board members (Alex Caruana, Pralhad Burli and Tanya O'Garra) represented "Team Counterfactual" across several high-impact sessions, including:

• June 2nd | Workshop with Arcus Foundation Partners: a full-day workshop focused on impact evaluation in ape and gibbon conservation - a fantastic collaborative learning event.

• June 3rd | Joint Plenary Session: Tanya O'Garra and Julia Jones delivered a joint plenary on causal inference in conservation and the role of AI in impact evaluation, brilliantly chaired by Wulan Pusparini from the Arcus Foundation.

• June 4th | Symposium: Evaluating the Impacts of Conservation on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing in Asia -  six outstanding presentations (Alex Caruana, Tanya O'Garra, Benjamin Chipperfield, Paul Hasan Thung, Avantika Thapa, and Aditya Malgaonkar) presented impact evaluation research from across Asia. 

• June 4th | social event - the week reached a perfect conclusion with an IEWG social, involving lots of great networking, food and some karaoke ! 

What's Next? Upcoming 2026 Symposia & Training

We are keeping the momentum going with a strong presence at major upcoming congresses later this year:

• ECCB 2026 (Leiden, Netherlands | July 6-10): we're thrilled to announce our forthcoming symposium Evidence and Attribution in the Age of Novel Data, Methods, and Technologies at the European Congress of Conservation Biology! We have an amazing line-up, with Josephine Gantois, Saija Papunen, Jakob Poffley, Alex Caruana and Tanya O'Garra. Please join us on Tuesday July 7, 4:30pm - 6:00pm, Room BM.1.26

You can explore the full session schedule and details on the ECCB 2026 Programme Portal. We hope to see many of you there!

• ACCB 2026 (Africa Congress): Team Counterfactual will also be heading to the Africa Congress for Conservation Biology! We will be delivering a specialized training session on impact evaluation for conservation, alongside hosting a dedicated symposium. We are finalizing the details for these sessions, so keep an eye on your inbox - more information will follow soon.

Finally, as always, we welcome interested potential volunteers to support our valuable work! We're especially looking for people who might be interested in managing and/or co-writing a blog series for the webpage, and/or provide support for social media engagement. See here: https://scb-impact.org/volunteer/   

Best regards,

The SCB Impact Evaluation Working Group (IEWG) Team

scb-impact.org