Hi everyone,
There is an excellent open access journal article, "Making more effective use of human behavioural science in conservation interventions", that was recently published in the journal Biological Conservation. According to the authors, conservationists still rely on traditional behaviour change interventions -- education, regulation and material incentives -- rather than applying insights from behavioural science to change behaviour.
Here's a synopsis from the abstract:
"This paper explores how behavioural science could be more widely and powerfully applied in biodiversity conservation. We consider the diverse cast of actors involved in conservation problems and the resulting breadth of behaviour change that conservationists might want to achieve. Drawing on health research, we present a catalogue of types of interventions for changing behaviour, considering both novel, standalone interventions and the enhancement of more traditional conservation interventions. We outline a framework for setting priorities among interventions based on their likely impact, using ideas developed for climate change mitigation"
The authors also caution that behavioural science is not a silver bullet for conservation, and that there is a need to build the evidence base to better understand the effectiveness and limitations of behavioural science in conservation.
If you are working in the field of conservation and/or you are interested in biological diversity, this is a must read.
There is an excellent open access journal article, "Making more effective use of human behavioural science in conservation interventions", that was recently published in the journal Biological Conservation. According to the authors, conservationists still rely on traditional behaviour change interventions -- education, regulation and material incentives -- rather than applying insights from behavioural science to change behaviour.
Here's a synopsis from the abstract:
"This paper explores how behavioural science could be more widely and powerfully applied in biodiversity conservation. We consider the diverse cast of actors involved in conservation problems and the resulting breadth of behaviour change that conservationists might want to achieve. Drawing on health research, we present a catalogue of types of interventions for changing behaviour, considering both novel, standalone interventions and the enhancement of more traditional conservation interventions. We outline a framework for setting priorities among interventions based on their likely impact, using ideas developed for climate change mitigation"
The authors also caution that behavioural science is not a silver bullet for conservation, and that there is a need to build the evidence base to better understand the effectiveness and limitations of behavioural science in conservation.
If you are working in the field of conservation and/or you are interested in biological diversity, this is a must read.
