CBCS PhD candidate
Great ape conservation sits at the intersection of some of the most complex challenges in the world – poverty, political instability and land-use pressures.
“Their conservation happens within complex social-ecological systems”, says Dr Emily Massingham, whose PhD examined the interplay between the ecological success of orangutan conservation projects and various social outcomes. “Great ape conservation is a particularly interesting and complex conservation problem – they receive so much conservation funding, yet all species are either Endangered or Critically Endangered and their populations are declining almost everywhere”.
Building a team of experts
Earlier this year, Emily ran a workshop with Professor Hugh Possingham at The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), focused on participatory structured decision-making (SDM) as a pathway to more equitable and effective outcomes in human–wildlife conflict, especially in the context of Africa’s great apes. “A wonderful diverse group of researchers and practitioners from multiple disciplines (including Associate Professor Angela Dean from CBCS, as well as experts from Oxford, Edinburgh, Germany, Spain, Còte-d’Ivoire, Kenya and the US; and from universities, NGOs, the United Nations, IUCN, etc.) came together to explore this topic within the context of human–great ape conflict in Africa.
“We were keen to build a team that would allow us to develop something grounded in both research and real-world experience”, Emily says. “Our group plans to identify the key ingredients of successful participatory processes and develop practical, scalable tools that enable conservation practitioners to implement these processes within budget and time constraints”.
Image credit: Luise Dietel
Equitable decision-making
SDM is a flexible approach based on decision science that helps diverse groups make more strategic and transparent decisions in complex situations. SDM workshops can provide stakeholders with a platform to define their objectives and potential actions, assess trade-offs, and design coexistence interventions that balance ecological protection with community needs. “Ultimately, we were interested in how to make decision-making in conservation more equitable, transparent and effective – especially in circumstances where poor or rushed engagement can undermine long-term success”, Emily says.
“Many projects address human–wildlife conflict, but outcomes vary widely. This could be due to decision-making processes that are rushed, top-down or fail to account for local perspectives”, she says. The group’s discussions identified several key pitfalls that commonly derail human–wildlife conflict (and broader conservation) efforts, such as unclear objectives, confusing actions with goals and poor stakeholder engagement.
Other issues include failing to account for risks, lacking implementation or evaluation plans, and lacking an exit plan from financial or technical support – all of which can lead to perverse outcomes or wasted resources.
Real-world solutions
The team is now working to transform these findings into real-world solutions via the creation of best practice guidance, training resources and an online tool for practitioners. Already, the workshop outputs are coming to fruition. The team of experts has drafted a research paper on using participatory SDM to improve human–wildlife conflict conservation planning. They are also gathering data from 100 great ape conservation projects across Africa to understand approaches to address human–great ape conflict, and how communities are or aren’t being involved in decisions around this.
“We’re piloting our participatory SDM approach in Indonesia with local NGO partners, providing training in decision science and SDM. Together, we’re designing workshops to develop coexistence interventions that benefit both people and nature. We’re currently seeking funding to implement the interventions identified through these workshops”, Emily says.
With participatory decision-making increasingly seen as the “secret sauce” to improving outcomes in human–wildlife conflict, Emily and her collaborators hope their work will help to reshape how conservation decisions are made in some of the world’s most complex ecological and social contexts.
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