As the most threatened vertebrate class on earth, amphibians are at the forefront of the biodiversity crisis, with the recognition of global amphibian declines and extinctions dating back several decades now. The current Amphibian Conservation Action Plan is adopting two strategies to address the goal of the amelioration of the amphibian crisis: the development of two complementary documents that work to 1) synthesise developments in major themes of amphibian conservation over the last 15 years, as in this document, and 2) summarise the key findings and recommendations to a broader audience in a user-friendly way (a practitioner document that will follow this synthesis document). The purpose is thus to provide the most up-to-date  evidence on threats and approaches to amphibian conservation, and from there identify gaps and priorities that can then be disseminated and adopted by stakeholders across the globe.