Improving conservation practice with principles and tools from systems thinking and evaluation

Abstract

Achieving nature conservation goals require grappling with 'wicked' problems. These intractable problems arise from the complexity and dynamism of the social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. To enhance their ability to address these problems, conservation professionals are increasingly looking to the transdisciplines of systems thinking and evaluation, which provide philosophies, theories, methods, tools and approaches that show promise for addressing intractable problems in a variety of other sectors. These transdisciplines come together especially around praxis, i.e., the process by which a theory or idea is enacted, embodied or realized. We present a review and synthesis of the learnings about praxis that have emerged from The Silwood Group, a consortium of conservation professionals, professional evaluators, and complexity and systems thinkers. The Silwood Group believes that for conservation activities to achieve ambitious goals, we should benefit nature without compromising the well-being of people, and that framing a praxis for conservation in the context of social-ecological systems will provide the greatest potential for positive impact. The learnings are presented as four key principles of a 'praxis for effective conservation'. The four principles are: (1) attend to the whole with humility; (2) engage constructively with the values, cultures, politics, and histories of stakeholders; (3) learn through evaluative, systemic enquiry, and (4) exercise wisdom in judgement and action. We also provide descriptions and references for tools and methods to support such praxis and discuss how the thinking and approaches used by conservation professionals can be transformed to achieve greater effectiveness.

Psychological Knowledge Relevant to Leadership in Wildlife Conservation

“…In carnivore projects, similar concepts apply: gaining trust among affected people, representing stakeholders, valuing knowledge (experience, tradition, or science), collectively agreeing goals, and empowerment (Sjölander-Lindqvist, Johansson, & Sandström, 2015). These aspects resonate with earlier general studies of conservation effectiveness (Black et al, 2011;Black et al, 2013;Black & Copsey, 2014) and more recent syntheses (Knight et al, 2019;Mahajan et al, 2019) which suggest a move away from traditional models of leadership and management.…”

Interpersonal competencies define effective conservation leadership

“…Co se atio a ti ities t pi all seek solutio s to i ked p o le s (Rittel & Webber 1973), where multiple stakeholders with divergent values engage within complex and dynamic systems to achieve Training in leadership should therefore adopt a problem-focused holistic approach that integrates a suite of carefully targeted complementary topics from across multiple disciplines and conducted across institutional scales for individuals, teams, organisations and initiatives. Conservation organisations and universities should commit to cooperatively develop curricula drawn from sectors aiming to drive transformations in complex systems, including evaluation, development, organisational management, systems thinking and the policy sciences (Knight et al 2019).…”

“…Embracing the philosophies, theories, methodologies and tools required to transform our collective approach to solving conservation problems will require humility from conservation professionals, demanding we acknowledge that, as professionals in a young sector, we may not recognise and can often lack, the expertise we require (Knight et al 2019). Displaying the courage to unflinchingly embrace this fundamental shift in approach to leadership could form the basis of a new era of effectiveness in conservation (Meine & Knight 1999).…”

Formation of ecological education of the population

“…Conducting relevant, high-quality scientific research and sharing the findings with decisionmakers is not enough to solve complex environmental and conservation issues [1][2][3]. Rather, we need synergistic spaces where research findings are interpreted and applied in on-the-ground contexts in ways that acknowledge and meld with social, political, and economic milieus [3].…”