Conservation Science and Practice Must Engage With the Realities of Complex Tropical Landscapes

Abstract

There is a growing disconnect between the international conferences where grand solutions for tropical conservation are designed and the complex local realities in tropical landscapes where plans need to be implemented. Every tropical landscape is different and no ''one size will fit all.'' There is a tendency for global processes to prescribe simple generalized solutions that provide good sound bites that can be communicated with political actors and the media. Sustainable outcomes in tropical landscapes require locally adapted, unique approaches supported by long-term processes of learning and adaptation. Tropical biologists and conservationists can play a key role by establishing effective local-global links and by directly engaging in local policy discourses while remaining connected to evolving political imperatives.

Transdisciplinary science for improved conservation outcomes

“…When conservationists seek to lock up nature, conservation has too often been seen by local people as locking up vital assets in ways that obstruct their entry into the cash economy, hinder their access to education and health services and disrupt the provision of roads and other infrastructure (Feintrenie et al 2010, Colfer 2011, Levang et al 2016, Sayer & Margules 2017. Conservation has struggled to link biological fundamentals with the messy reality of human behaviour, economic growth and politics (Boedhihartono et al 2018). Land-use conflicts, civil and military disorder, donor fatigue and narrow sectoral approaches to governancewhat Indonesians colourfully call 'egosectoral' approachesall conspire to thwart conservation actions.…”

Science Embedded in Local Forest Landscape Management Improves Benefit Flows to Society

“…Contemporary science is slowly embracing sustainability science based on collaborative, transdisciplinary approaches and social-ecological systems thinking, and is working at the landscape scale to make impact (Opdam, 2018). Yet large disconnects between local realities, conservation science and practice, and global policy discourses suggest an unmet need to science Robinson (2006); Boedhihartono et al (2018); Bull et al (2018). Global environmental discourses justify policy interventions that do not harmonize with local realities (Adger et al, 2001;Bull et al, 2018).…”

“…In this paper, we describe challenges and opportunities for co-generating knowledge with the multiple actors that influence local decision-making (Lang et al, 2012;Polk, 2014). We show that scientists must be flexible, reflective, and reflexive in their roles and approaches if they are to influence the ways in which local management regimes deliver conservation and development impacts (Evans et al, 2017;Boedhihartono et al, 2018;Ros-Tonen et al, 2018). Finally, we identify some practical methods to embed science and describe lessons from our work as part of our approach to conducting research in development, rather than on development.…”

Tree conservation can be constrained by agents from conservation permitting and funding agencies

“…Sharing successful and unsuccessful local case studies with the international community is a vital step toward learning and adapting within conservation and restoration efforts [4]. Discussions of conservation failures are particularly important for helping conservationists avoid counter-productive decisions, and these discussions provide core diagnostic tools for building future conservation program successes [5][6][7]. For example, weak governance may create institutional confusion or foster corruption that thwarts conservation and restoration successes [8][9][10].…”

“…Additionally, government agents in positions of power may use a top-down assertive approach rather than a collective integrative approach to push an authoritarian agenda that ignores the fundamental principles of research ethics and allows the loss of intellectual property by involved scientists [11][12][13]. Global conservation efforts are hindered when individuals empowered with making policy decisions are insufficiently equipped to understand the local conservation issues, and similarly hindered when individuals possessing local knowledge and capabilities are marginalized from the conservation process [7].…”