Conservation and the Social Sciences

As forests shrink, fisheries collapse, and species—the charismatic and the unknown—wink out around the globe, the conservation community continues to look to the biological sciences to inform policy and practice. Biology, of course, provides us with the theoretical and analytic tools to identify rare and threatened species and ecosystems. Biology also enables us to estimate the limits to human use necessary to sustain these systems. Our failure to understand these basic ( though often extraordinarily complex) issues sometimes leads to conservation policies and practices ill-suited to addressing the problems they were intended to solve. More often, however, we get the biology right, but our conservation interventions still fail to sustain target species and ecosystems. The disconnect between our biological knowledge and conservation success has led to a growing sense among scientists and practitioners that social factors are often the primary determinants of success or failure. Although it may seem counterintuitive that the foremost influences on the success of environmental policy could be social , conservation interventions are the product of human decisionmaking processes and require changes in human behavior to succeed. Thus, conservation policies and practices are inherently social phenomena, as are the intended and unintended changes in human behavior they induce. Recognizing that conservation is about people as much as it is about species or ecosystems — an acknowledgement seldom explicitly made in conservation circles — suggests a significant shift in the nature and use of science in conservation. To preserve the earth’s natural heritage, the social sciences must become central to conservation science and practice. Political science, anthropology, economics, psychology, sociology, geography, legal studies, and other social science disciplines all have analytic tools and established knowledge that can explain and predict patterns of human behavior—insights vital to the success of local, national, and international conservation efforts. In the development and management of protected areas, for example, the social sciences can complement the biological sciences in critical ways. Environmental economics can often provide a powerful rationale for the establishment of protected areas by demonstrating that the value of goods and services generated by intact ecosystems exceeds that of a fragmented or transformed landscape. Anthropological research can document the sociocultural and spiritual value of biodiversity. Together with other social science disciplines, anthropology can also identify the conservation-oriented cultural beliefs, values, norms, and rules that are often well suited to serve as the foundation for the formal laws and regulations that govern protected areas. Finally, drawing upon the rich literature on the governance of “commons”—forests, fisheries, wildlife and the like—the social sciences can provide valuable insights into how decision-making arrangements, resource use rights, monitoring and enforcement systems, and conflict resolution mechanisms shape individual use of, and thus the state of, protected areas. Protected areas are not unique. Across the full range of issues that face the conservation community today, the social sciences can contribute greatly to the development and implementation of lasting solutions by answering critical questions. Which policy initiatives most effectively curb the illegal bushmeat trade? How should public awareness programs be designed to reflect learning differences across age groups? In what markets are ecolabeling programs best suited to create the economic incentives for sustainable fisheries? What cultural beliefs and values drive the international trade in endangered species for medicinal purposes? How will long-term conservation planning and protection in Africa be affected by the demographic impacts of HIV/AIDS? The list could go on for pages. The real question for debate, of course, is not whether to integrate the social sciences into conservation but how to do so. As a starting point for discussion, we offer a few suggestions to the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), conservation organizations, and the academic community.