Consider diverse sources of evidence.

At a min­i­mum, these four sources of evi­dence should be explored:

1. Sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­ture, includ­ing peer reviewed jour­nal arti­cles as well as books and grey lit­er­a­ture, as can be searched via online data­bas­es such as Google Schol­ar or oth­er search engines that may be avail­able through aca­d­e­m­ic partners.
2. Inter­nal staff exper­tise. Knowl­edge­able staff from with­in your orga­ni­za­tion should be con­sult­ed to iden­ti­fy evi­dence that they may be aware of, includ­ing unpub­lished reports or data. These staff should also help iden­ti­fy rel­e­vant exter­nal experts.
3. Exter­nal exper­tise. It is always advis­able to iden­ti­fy at least one exter­nal expert to ensure you have not missed any evi­dence, and it is essen­tial when inter­nal exper­tise is thin.
4. Local experts and stake­hold­ers. Local knowl­edge includes tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge and the expe­ri­ence of those that work direct­ly with nat­ur­al resource man­age­ment or extrac­tion. As this knowl­edge may not yet be writ­ten down, inter­views will often be required to obtain this information.