Professor Sutherland's conservation research focuses on applying ecological data and models to understand conservation problems. This may involve field work, use of existing data or purely theoretical problems. Particular subjects include bird population ecology as well as the impacts of agriculture of biodiversity.

Professor Sutherland has also been involved in analysing how decisions are made in relation to conservation and policy. This work has involved horizon scanning to identify future issues, collation of evidence to determine which interventions are effective and then a rigorous means of weighting the evidence to guide policy and practice.

See: http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/directory/bill-sutherland

for key publications.