Working from the Inside Out: Fostering Intrinsic Motivation and Expanding Our Criteria for Conservation Success

Primatological research is often associated with understanding animals and their habitats, yet practical conservation depends entirely on human actions. This encompasses the activities of Indigenous and local people, conservationists, and NGOs working on the ground, as well as more remote funders and policymakers. In this paper we explore what it means to be a conservationist in the 2020s. While many primatologists accept the benefits of more socially inclusive dimensions of research and conservation practice, in reality there remain many challenges. We discuss the role primatologists can play to enhance interdisciplinary working and their relationships with communities living in and around their study sites, and examine how increased reflexivity and consideration of one’s positionality can improve primatological practice. Emphasis on education and stakeholder consultation may still echo colonial, top-down dialogues, and the need for greater emphasis on genuine knowledge-sharing among all stakeholders should be recognised. If we are sincere about this approach, we might need to redefine how we see, consider, and define conservation success. We may also have to embrace more compromises. By evaluating success in conservation we explore how reflexive engagements with our positionality and equitable knowledge-sharing contribute to fostering intrinsic motivation and building resilience.

     

Is gardening a useful metaphor for conservation and restoration? History and controversy

As the wilderness metaphor has decreased in utility due to widespread human‐driven environmental change, conservationists and restorationists have struggled to find new ways to inspire nature conservation. Some have suggested gardening as a new metaphor, but many are wary of its implications, particularly for animals viewed as threats or pests. Others, however, point out positive attributes for the metaphor including its focus on stewardship of nature which allows for positive human agency in ecosystems. We argue a gardening metaphor may also allow increased flexibility in approaches to biodiversity conservation, in part by allowing goals to be fit to communities and their specific cultural contexts. Wild gardening would seek to preserve global biodiversity while acknowledging the pivotal role humans now play in that process. Here we review the use of the garden metaphor over the last 25 years and discuss what wild gardening might mean for restoration. Consistent with a long history of environmental thought, we suggest such a metaphor will work best if it is coupled with a civic/stewardship ethic and a good dose of humility on the part of all gardeners.     

Planning for biodiversity conservation based on the knowledge of biologists

To conserve biodiversity, complementary approaches are necessary. Besides using museum data from sightings and specimens, the knowledge of experts can also be employed. Often such valuable information is lost on retirement or death. To investigate the value of this knowledge for nature conservation planning, we sent questionnaires to 124 professional conservationists in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Fifty-two replies illustrated that the historical context biases our concepts of nature and the conservation of biodiversity. Despite an awareness of all the spatial scales, complexities and dynamics of nature, there is still a strong focus on large-sized animals and visibly discrete ecosystems, such as wetlands. Nevertheless, the respondents illustrated that an awareness of infrequently-seen and less well known organisms is increasing. Harnessing this expert knowledge was valuable for conservation planning, but had the weakness that many taxa and localities were neglected. Similar problems arose with data from museum specimens. However, both these approaches were synergistic and highlighted the geographical areas that need far more exploration of their biodiversity. Such information gathering is an important ethical and practical exercise for conserving biodiversity.     

A Modest Proposal for Wealthy Countries to Reforest Their Land for the Common Good

We discuss a recent press release calling on wealthy countries to do more to combat climate change and protect their biodiversity. We examine some further examples of how questionable views are imposed unilaterally on conservation problems. Until we better engage with local perspectives we shall be less credible and less effective as conservationists.     

Translocations,conservation, and climate change: use of restoration sites as protorefuges and protorefugia

High levels of human activity have affected the quality and usability of the natural landscape, leading to habitat degradation, loss of connectivity between sites, and reduced chances of long‐term survival for individual species. In line with conservation policy, ecological restoration practitioners try to improve degraded sites by means of reestablishing species lost from these sites, thereby returning ecological functionality and maintaining biological diversity. It may appear difficult to integrate the long‐term potential impacts of climate change within restoration strategies. However, more refined climate projections and species distribution models provide us with better understanding of likely scenarios, enabling us to consider future proofing as an integral part of the design of restoration sites, aiding plant conservation. We believe that it is possible to go one step further with a closer integration of restoration and conservation objectives. We introduce the novel concepts of “protorefuges” and “protorefugia”—restoration sites that threatened species can be translocated to, where the restoration design can be specifically adapted to help reduce the decline of threatened species at the leading and trailing edges (respectively) of bioclimatic envelope shifts. This is particularly relevant for nuclear decommissioning sites, which may be free from human activity for decades to centuries.     

Preserving Preuss’s Red Colobus (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Piliocolobus preussi</Emphasis>): an Ethnographic Analysis of Hunting,Conservation, and Changing Perceptions of Primates in Ikenge-Bakoko,Cameroon

The futures of nonhuman primate species and human communities in shared landscapes rely on our ability to engage with and understand the complex histories and multiscalar aspects of human–animal relationships. We use the Critically Endangered Preuss’s red colobus (Piliocolobus preussi) as a case study to examine the important ways in which histories of multiscalar human–primate interactions play out in the village of Ikenge-Bakoko, Korup National Park, Cameroon. We contextualize ethnographic and catchment data from adult men (N?=?32) and women (N?=?31) within long-term diurnal primate monitoring datasets to better understand the relationships among hunting practices, local perceptions of diurnal primates, populations of P. preussi, and conservation management. Our data indicate a disconnect between local cultural definitions of “hunter” and Western assumptions as to the makeup and nature of this and other categories. We show that such contradictions can have negative outcomes for conservationists seeking to turn the science of establishing accurate off-take rates of prey species into practical management solutions. Using a single village as a focal point, we highlight the importance of an ethnoprimatological approach to understanding the intricate entanglements among conservation histories, subsistence strategies, and human and nonhuman primate lives. The application of ethnoprimatology is critical for twenty-first century primatologists who must navigate conservation concerns while also acknowledging and valuing the experiences of the human communities living alongside the primates we study.     

Culture theory: The developing synthesis from biology

Conclusions We believe that a useful, complete theory of culture is simpler than the dichotomies promoted by the coevolutionary approach suggest. Culture can be regarded as an aspect of the environment into which each human is born and must succeed or fail, developed gradually by the succession of humans who have lived throughout history. We hypothesize that culture results from the inclusive-fitness-maximizing efforts of all humans who have lived. We think the evidence suggests that cultural traits are, in general, vehicles of genic survival, and that the heritability of cultural traits depends on the judgments (conscious and unconscious) of individuals with regard to their effects on the individual's inclusive fitness.The challenge now before students of culture is to understand the proximate mechanisms, especially the ontogeny of learning biases, that result in the acquisition and transmission of cultural traits. How, for example, do we learn what constitutes an appropriate return on a social investment in different circumstances; i.e., what causes us to feel rewarded by, say, helping offspring who do not help us back, yet consistently to begrudge lesser expenditures to most others, or to feel cheated if we are not compensated for such expenditures immediately? We suggest that the answers to such questions lie in a few basic evolved learning tendencies.     

Biodiversity,biological uncertainty,and setting conservation priorities

In a world of massive extinctions where not all taxa can be saved, how ought biologists to decide their preservation priorities? When biologists make recommendations regarding conservation, should their analyses be based on scientific criteria, on public or lay criteria, on economic or some other criteria? As a first step in answering this question, we examine the issue of whether biologists ought to try to save the endangered Florida panther, a well known “glamour” taxon. To evaluate the merits of panther preservation, we examine three important arguments of biologists who are skeptical about the desirability of panther preservation. These arguments are (1) that conservation dollars ought to be spent in more efficient ways than panther preservation; (2) that biologists and conservationists ought to work to preserve species before subspecies; and (3) that biologists and conservationists ought to work to save habitats before species or subspecies. We conclude that, although all three arguments are persuasive, none of them provides convincing grounds for foregoing panther preservation in favor of other, more scientifically significant conservation efforts. Our conclusion is based, in part, on the argument that biologists ought to employ ethical, as well as scientific, rationality in setting conservation priorities and that ethical rationality may provide persuasive grounds for preserving taxa that often are not viewed by biologists as of great importance.     

Decolonizing Primate Conservation Practice: A Case Study from North Morocco

Understanding the historical context of an area enables an incoming conservationist to reflect on their role in communities and to better position themselves both politically and socially within them. Here, we explore how outside agencies and institutions, including a former colonial power, have affected and influenced local communities who share their landscape with Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in Bouhachem forest, north Morocco. In the context of initiating Barbary macaque conservation activities, we interviewed representatives from local governmental and nongovernmental organizations, city dwellers, and villagers about the historical, political, and social context of the study site. We found that villages around Bouhachem were politically and socially marginalized and discriminated against by the state and urban society. The existence of these divisions and the outside agencies’ simplistic view of villages as homogeneous communities negatively influenced conservation interventions, because people resisted initiatives imposed on them without prior consultation. We found that Bouhachem villagers have been, and still are, excluded from meaningful participation in the conservation of the forest and this finding encouraged us to decolonize our own practice. We engaged meaningfully with members of the surrounding communities and responded to news of erroneous stories about our activities by developing a project working in three villages that included all households. Based on our experiences, we recommend that all conservationists conduct historical and qualitative research to gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the communities they work in. This understanding should encourage conservationists to recognize their own social and cultural biases and to decolonize their practice. Attending to our own position may help us to avoid underestimating and alienating people who view conservation actions through a very different but equally valid lens.

التخلص من التداعيات الاستعمارية في المحافظة على الرئيسيات :دراسة حالة من شمال المغربخلاصة : إن فهم السياق التاريخي لمنطقة معينة، يمكّن المحافظ البيئي الوافد من التفكير في دوره في المجتمعات، ولانسجامٍ سياسيٍ واجتماعي أفضل داخلها. هنا نكتشف كيف أثرت الوكالات والمؤسسات الخارجية ، بما في ذلك القوة الاستعمارية السابقة، على المجتمعات المحلية التي تتعايش مع قرود المكاك البربري (Macaca sylvanus) في غابة بوهاشم شمال المغرب. في سياق بدء أنشطة الحفاظ على المكاك البربري، أجرينا مقابلات مع ممثلين من المنظمات الحكومية وغير الحكومية المحلية وسكان المدن والقرويين حول السياق التاريخي والسياسي والاجتماعي لموقع الدراسة. وجدنا أن القرى المحيطة بغابة بوهاشم كانت مهمشة و معرضة للتمييز ضدها سياسياً واجتماعياً من قبل الدولة والمجتمع الحضري. و أثر بشكل سلبي وجود هذه الانقسامات والنظرة السطحية للوكالات الخارجية للقرى على أنها مجتمعات متجانسة، على تدخلات الحفظ البيئي، لأن الناس رفضوا أي مبادرة مفروضة عليهم دون استشارة مسبقة. و وجدنا أن القرويين في بوهاشم كانوا ولا يزالون مستبعدين من المشاركة الهادفة في الحفاظ على الغابة، وهذا الاكتشاف شجعنا على التخلص من التداعيات الاستعمارية في ممارستنا. لقد تواصلنا بشكل هادف بأعضاء من المجتمعات المحيطة، واستجبنا لأخبار القصص الخاطئة حول أنشطتنا من خلال تطوير مشروع يعمل في ثلاث قرى شمل جميع الأسر. بناءً على تجاربنا، نوصي جميع دعاة الحفاظ على البيئة بإجراء بحث تاريخي ونوعي لاكتساب فهم أعمق وأكثر دقة للمجتمعات التي يعملون فيها. يجب أن يشجع هذا الفهم دعاة الحفاظ على البيئة على التعرف على التحيزات الاجتماعية والثقافية الخاصة بهم، والتخلص من التداعيات الاستعمارية في ممارساتهم.قد يساعدنا الاهتمام بموقفنا الخاص على تجنب الإبعاد و التقليل من شأن الأشخاص، الذين ينظرون إلى إجراءات الحفاظ على البيئة من منظور مختلف تمامًا لكن عادل .

     

“Only slaves climb trees”

Professional and popular publications have increasingly depicted native peoples of Amazonia as “natural” conservationists or as people with an innate “conservation ethic.” A few classic examples are cited repeatedly to advance this argument with the result that these cases tend to be generalized to all indigenous peoples. This paper explores the premise that many of these systems of resource conservation come from areas of Amazonia where human survival depends on careful management of the subsistence base and not from a culturally imbedded “conservation ethic.” Where resource constraints do not pertain, as in the case of the Yuquí of lowland Bolivia, such patterns are unknown. Finally, the negative consequences of portraying all native peoples as natural conservationists is having some negative consequences in terms of current struggles to obtain indigenous land rights.     

Toward conservational anthropology: addressing anthropocentric bias in anthropology

Anthropological literature addressing conservation and development often blames ‘conservationists’ as being neo-imperialist in their attempts to institute limits to commercial activities by imposing their post-materialist eco-ideology. The author argues that this view of conservationists is ironic in light of the fact that the very notion of ‘development’ is arguably an imposition of the (Western) elites. The anthropocentric bias in anthropology also permeates constructivist ethnographies of human–animal ‘interactions,’ which tend to emphasize the socio-cultural complexity and interconnectivity rather than the unequal and often extractive nature of this ‘interaction.’ Anthropocentrism is argued to be counteractive to reconciling conservationists’ efforts at environmental protection with the traditional ontologies of the interdependency of human-nature relationship.     

Using citizen science data to inform the relative sensitivity of waterbirds to natural versus human‐dominated landscapes in China

Habitat loss is widely regarded as one of the most destructive factors threatening native biodiversity. Because migratory waterbirds include some of the most globally endangered species, information on their sensitivity to landscape would benefit their conservation. While citizen science data on waterbird species occurrence are subjected to various biases, their appropriate interpretation can provide information of benefit to species conservation. We apply a bootstrapping procedure to citizen science data to reduce sampling biases and report the relative sensitivity of waterbird species to natural versus human‐dominated landscapes. Analyses are performed on 30,491 data records for 69 waterbird species referred to five functional groups observed in China between 2000 and 2018. Of these taxa, 30 species (43.5%) are significantly associated with natural landscapes, more so for cranes, geese, and ducks than for shorebirds and herons. The relationship between land association and the threat status of waterbirds is significant when the range size of species is considered as the mediator, and the higher the land association, the higher the threat status. Sensitive species significantly associated with natural landscapes are eight times more likely to be classified as National Protected Species (NPS) Classes I or II than less sensitive species significantly associated with human‐dominated landscapes. We demonstrate the potential for citizen science data to assist in conservation planning in the context of landscape changes. Our methods might assist others to obtain information to help relieve species decline and extinction.     

Rural change and nature conservation in Africa: A case study from Swaziland

High population growth and deteriorating economic conditions imperil Africa's natural environment. Conservationists are trying to cope with the threat by working in rural communities. Yet it is unclear whether they can be effective when social and economic change in rural areas is so rapid. Northeast Swaziland provides a case study. The landscape has been transformed since the 1950s, and conservationists are the only people now giving nature conservation a high priority. Land uses incompatible with local nature reserves are supported because they provide jobs. Thus, conservationists find themselves facing a world where wildlife is increasingly devalued as the forces of change accelerate. This paper concludes: (1) conservationists must expand their influence into rural communities, (2) an integrated development and conservation plan is required for northeastern Swaziland, and (3) only the alleviation of poverty will secure the future of nature conservation in Swaziland as well as the rest of Africa.     

An interdisciplinary conception of human-wildlife coexistence

Human-wildlife coexistence is a pressing worldwide concern with significant impacts on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Despite the growing interest in coexistence research and practice, recent analytical attention remains fragmented, inconsistent, and of questionable practical use. To address this, we draw on the integrative framework of policy sciences to clarify coexistence concepts. The term “coexistence” is currently used with various interpretations, such as a desirable state, a factual occurrence, or a conservation approach. We adopt the classical ecological definition of coexistence and view human-wildlife coexistence as a multispecies social process that involves diverse interactions between human and non-human actors. We propose a typology of coexistence that can be applied to human-wildlife and human-human interactions across different contexts. We categorize the factors that condition coexistence into two groups: the behavioral predispositions of actors, which we conceptualize as a physical-physiological-psychological complex, and the environmental circumstances of interactions, which we conceptualize as a natural-social-cultural nexus. These interactions involved in coexistence are characterized by impermanence and inter-determination. We use the example of human-snow leopard interactions on the Tibetan Plateau in China to illustrate our points. To better understand and address coexistence challenges, we recommend that conservationists take an integrative approach that is problem-oriented, contextual, self-reflective, and multi-method.     

Spatial analysis of endemism to redefine conservation areas in Western Ghats (India)

A meaningful effort for the preservation of endemism would require a deep understanding of its related mechanisms and an accurate estimation of its spatial distribution. Here, we applied methods dedicated to species distribution modelling (SDM) to map an integrated index in India's Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, the endemic tree richness, and to use it for recommendations of protected areas. We then rigorously compared SDM results with spatially explicit and multiscale comparison tools, among them the cutting-edge correlation map and profile (CMP) technique, to finally draw up an endemic richness map with improved accuracy.The endemic richness showed a sharply increasing southward gradient in the Western Ghats, mainly driven by the seasonality of the temperature and the precipitation's stability. This precise quantification of the tree endemism pattern in peninsular India helped in identifying vulnerable areas in terms of conservation of biodiversity as a whole. The Indian authorities recently used our recommendations to extend protected areas in the southern tip of the Indian peninsula to conserve this endemic richness. We believe that spatial analyses and multiscale comparison tools such as those presented here can help conservationists everywhere to better cope with the difficulties met in identifying zones for protected status.     

Species richness covariance in higher taxa: empirical tests of the biodiversity indicator concept

The distribution of much of the world's biodiversity is poorly known. It is suggested that the species richness of certain Indicator taxa may reflect that of other, poorly studied taxa, making the mapping of individual taxa uneccessary and providing a guide to conservationists. In this paper we examine this proposition at a spatial scale relevant to practical conservation We show that the relationship between the species richnesses of certain higher taxa in Britain is spatially highly variable and unpredictable. Britain may not be representative of other areas of the world but our results indicate that considerable further analysis is required before indicator taxa can be recruited as a reliable short cut to conservation planning     

"Are we there yet?": Deciding when one has demonstrated specific genetic causation in complex diseases and quantitative traits

Although mathematical relationships can be proven by deductive logic, biological relationships can only be inferred from empirical observations. This is a distinct disadvantage for those of us who strive to identify the genes involved in complex diseases and quantitative traits. If causation cannot be proven, however, what does constitute sufficient evidence for causation? The philosopher Karl Popper said, "Our belief in a hypothesis can have no stronger basis than our repeated unsuccessful critical attempts to refute it." We believe that to establish causation, as scientists, we must make a serious attempt to refute our own hypotheses and to eliminate all known sources of bias before association becomes causation. In addition, we suggest that investigators must provide sufficient data and evidence of their unsuccessful efforts to find any confounding biases. In this editorial, we discuss what "causation" means in the context of complex diseases and quantitative traits, and we suggest guidelines for steps that may be taken to address possible confounders of association before polymorphisms may be called "causative."     

Environmental Understanding for All

Real education in environmental understanding is about inspiring and enlarging people's curiosity. It is about generating a breadth of interest and not just a depth of expertise. It should encourage appreciation of the environment, not just understanding, and it helps if it also leaves some room for wonder.
'Environmental Understanding for All' is the clear aim of the Field Studies Council. We have set ourselves to this difficult but exciting task. We have tried to develop some environmental understanding in all sorts of people; young and old, rural and urban, committed and indifferent, despoilers and conservationists, politicians and pressure groups, industry and commerce, academic and non-academic.
The main thrust of our attack is based at one Day Centre, one main Research Unit, six Residential Centres in England and three in Wales. These Centres are up mountains, by the coast, in forests, on the shores of lakes and tarns. Some of them are almost in fields! We have well over a hundred professional and dedicated staff helping us to look after many thousands of customers each year.
In the spectrum of scientific and conservation organizations concerned with the environment, we have an important and honoured place. We have, perhaps, stood too passively on the sidelines and we need a higher profile to get the resources and recognition to move forward–but we can be proud of the start we have made towards 'Environmental Understanding for All'.     

The International Primatological Society as a Coalition: Primatologists and the Future of Primates

Because we are currently losing the conservation struggle, new initiatives are worth considering. I suggest 4 of them. The International Primatological Society (IPS) might strengthen primate behavioral ecology partly by being more open to the significance of non-primate and human studies. We could stimulate more educational materials, particularly through encouraging professionals by giving our seal of approval for first-class efforts. We can encourage range-country sanctuaries in their conservation initiatives by supporting them through appropriate research plans. We can support global initiatives to promote political support for primate conservation. There are many such ideas that might have been proposed. I hope that this essay stimulates others. Essay based on a plenary address at the 21st Congress of the International Primatological Society, Entebbe, Uganda, June 2006     

Ecological correlates of the popularity of birds and butterflies in Internet information resources

The success of conservation programs depends on using appropriate methods to demonstrate the importance of conservation to society. For example, flagship species are among the key marketing tools to motivate public support. However, they are rarely selected in a systematic, manner. In this study we addressed the issue of the colonization of human information resources by birds and butterflies in the context of wildlife conservation. We used a simple method to measure the popularity of species based on Google browsing and made an attempt to link biological characteristics of the species with their popularity in human information resources. Biological traits of species contributed significantly to explaining the occupancy (invasion) of cyberspace by the species. Commonness and body size of the species appeared to be the most informative predictors of their Google score. We believe that these results may be used by conservation organizations to assist in the selection of flagship/charismatic species, and their use in logos, for TV programs or for other public presentations. Moreover, we showed that some biological traits can affect the popularity of wildlife in society and in virtual resources.