The Social Side of Conservation Science is Blossoming!
March 17, 2025
Conservation is entering a new, socio-ecological era. For many years, the field of conservation was dominated by the natural sciences. Threats to biodiversity, and the ecosystems in support, had environmentalists putting in their best efforts to advocate for nature. The dominant mode was protection: safeguard certain key natural areas from human activity to preserve habitat and ecosystem services for biodiversity. In the 1980s the environmental justice movement was born, and the linkage between human and environmental systems became more apparent. Experts and practitioners began to recognize power imbalances in natural resource management and the ecological importance of the vast amount of landscapes used, inhabited, and influenced by humans (Bennett et al., 2022). Overtime, the inherent interconnectedness between people and the natural world took center stage, thanks in part to the advocacy work of environmental justice actors and indigenous and smallholder agrarian communities. Today, conservation social science is a growing scholarly field that considers the human dimensions of conservation and natural resource management.
In August, I began work at Point Blue as the organization’s first Conservation Social Scientist. Having previously worked as the first social scientist with the amazing Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales (FCAT), an Ecuadorian community-based conservation organization, I was excited to bring my community-engaged, environmental sociology research methodologies to California. At FCAT, I participated in interdisciplinary research projects that highlighted the role of powerful social actors (e.g., individuals, institutions) in shaping ecological landscapes and vice versa, a field referred to as Political Ecology (publication). I collaborated with local Ecuadorian women and an environmental artist to explore Ecofeminism (publication forthcoming). And I served as a thought partner with some of the organization’s founding members from local communities to define and explore the implications of their model of community-based conservation (publication).
Like FCAT, Point Blue has a strong history of partnering with various social actors. Trusting relationships with policymakers, farmers, agencies, and community-based organizations forms the foundation for rigorous scientific work. In my research at Point Blue, I aim to increase accessibility to conservation and highlight the ways that human well-being and ecological goals are connected. In my work with our statewide Roots Program, for example, we are investigating landowner motivation factors to highlight conservation on working landscapes and reconceptualize “durable” conservation. I am also researching the social context underpinning landowner’s participation in BirdReturns, a conservation initiative led by Audubon California, The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue that pays farmers and managers of private wetlands to temporarily flood their fields, creating wetland habitats for migrating birds during critical times of year. Incorporating these qualitative analyses allows us to describe the unquantifiable impacts of our conservation work and move beyond a human/nature dichotomy.
When integrated alongside ecological metrics, qualitative social science explanations can help us to address the complex socio-environmental issues of our day. A strength of our organization is connectedness. We draw linkages between species, habitat types, environmental drivers, policy engagement, and now, socio-ecological dimensions. For this reason, I believe that Point Blue is well positioned to be a leader in the growing field of conservation social science.