Trust alone

“Recommended by experts!”

Just because a claim is made by an expert or authority, you cannot be sure that it is trustworthy.

Opinions of experts or authorities do not alone provide a reliable basis for deciding on the environmental benefits and harms of interventions. Environmental managers, researchers and other stakeholders – like anyone else – often disagree about the effects of interventions. This may be because their opinions are not always based on systematic reviews of the evidence.

People should not decide how trustworthy a claim is based only on who made the claim or how experienced, well known, or “expert” they are; or where the claim was made. Claims that are not based on fair comparisons can be found in sources that are well-respected as well as ones that are not.

BEWARE of claims like “recommended by experts” or “experts say”.

REMEMBER: Do not rely on the opinions of experts or other authorities about the environmental impacts of interventions, unless they clearly base their opinions on the findings of systematic reviews of evidence.