Conservation, a subject or a method?

A few months ago I sat down with the aim of describing exactly what conservation science is with the hope of producing a sort of framework.  I struggled.  I struggled because, trying to describe a science, I attempted to outline the conservation science method.  Pathology has a method and economics has a method; conservation science (if it can be called a science) does not have a method.  This is because conservation is a subject in the same way that, for example, asking how a healthcare system could be improved would be a subject.  To improve a healthcare system one would need not only look at biomedical research but also how to engineer the best buildings, how to attract and train the best staff, how to alter the public’s behaviour (in an acceptable manner) such that the demands on the system were reduced and how to best use the available staff, buildings and other resources.  In this blog I will explore the different strands of research which could and do contribute to the field of conservation highlighting that, in such a complex subject, explicitly defining the question one is answering and the framework they are using is vitally important.

I completed my undergraduate studies at Cambridge where, without really realising the significance at the time, I was introduced to three academics using and investigating different, complementary conservation methods. Head of conservation research for the RSPB, Rhys Green lectured me on a problem solving, investigative method used to isolate the factor causing the decline of vultures in Asia.  This was the similar approach to my idea of science, based on lab science.  William Sutherland introduced me to horizon scanning, a method to identify the upcoming challenges for conservation in conjunction with policy makers.  This type of research is obviously well complemented by the problem solving approach Rhys Green expounded.  William Sutherland also introduced me to citizen science, a framework for harnessing the information generated, often without being captured, by conservation practitioners.  This framework also has the potential to complements the Rhys Green framework, generating the data necessary to find solutions. 

Andrew Balmford, in my opinion a person who excels at providing the framework in which problems are best considered also lectured me.  Above all else, his lectures highlighted to me the need to identify the correct currency with which to measure the success of conservation efforts and the inevitable trade-offs entailed.  If you want to know how successful a zoo in then you must define success, is it visitor numbers or changes in individuals’ attitudes towards nature or the number of successful reintroductions or profits?  Are zoos trying to maximise the same measure of success as conservation scientists?  This approach largely influenced my blog on Quality Adjusted Life Years (QUALYs), the metric used by the NHS to quantify the value of different treatments.  It is also largely through the work of Andrew Balmford that I was introduced to the ecosystem services approach, an attempt to find a common currency which will allow conservation to engage with economics and politics, the forces which, ultimately, shape human behaviour and therefore the fate of nature (again, my blog on QUALYs examines this issue).

This last year, since graduating, I have discovered two new methods which, I believe, have much to offer to conservation.  The first is behavioural economics.  I have stated that economics and politics shape human behaviour but economics does not provide a perfect prediction of human behaviour.  Understanding why individuals act ‘non-rationally’ (not as an economic model would predict) is the realm of behavioural economics.  I believe that it will prove to be extremely valuable by aiding our understanding of the decision making of individuals, such as farmers, whose actions determine the fate of nature.  Once these decision making processes are understood, policy makers will be able to offer farmers, and other stewards of nature, the rewards they will respond to in exchange for actions which benefit nature (identified via traditional research and Sutherland’s citizen science).  Here is a link to a blog I wrote on what behavioural economics can offer conservation.  The second is no so much a method as a way of thinking (at least to me, perhaps I am not intelligent enough to convert this new awareness into a method).  It comes from the books of Nicholas Nassim Taleb, ‘Fooled by Randomness’ and ‘The Black Swan’.  These books provide a way of thinking about randomness in complex systems, and, ultimately conclude that it is better to be broadly right when making ecological predictions and designing conservation interventions than attempting to make precise predictions and being wrong.  If policy makers can be convinced that they are better served by uncertain predictions which include a measure of the uncertainty entailed, then the conservation would, I believe, benefit.  I have also written this blog on this subject.

Though I have characterised the three Cambridge professors as each pursuing different methods, in reality they co-operate and their work overlaps greatly.  In such an interdisciplinary field, collaboration within and between departments offers so much.  I think I will return to my blog and try to bring these strands and methods together into some sort of framework.  If you have any comments or advice then please do leave your thoughts below.  Many thanks.