Volume 200, August 2016, Pages 93–103
Review
- a The University of Queensland, School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Management, St Lucia 4072, Australia
- b CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, GPO Box 2583, Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia
- Received 20 October 2015, Revised 21 May 2016, Accepted 26 May 2016, Available online 10 June 2016
Highlights
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- A realist synthesis explains how and why programs work.
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- First application of a realist synthesis to conservation literature.
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- We identified three main mechanisms used to achieve behaviour change.
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- Various contexts affect the success of each mechanism.
Abstract
Community-based
conservation programs often target local communities with the aim of
altering their behaviours to achieve conservation outcomes. However,
these programs can underestimate the complexities of human behaviour,
and hence jeopardize their effectiveness. We applied a realist synthesis
to 17 community-based conservation programs in developing countries
that quantitatively measured behavioural changes linked to conservation
outcomes. A realist synthesis identifies the critical mechanisms
operating within a program and the outcome(s) caused by these
mechanisms, and also identifies how the context affects these
mechanisms. Our synthesis identified three main mechanisms that best
explain the reasoning of individuals to engage in conservation
behaviours: i) conservation livelihood provides economic value; ii)
conservation provides benefits that outweigh losses of curtailing
previous behaviour, and iii) giving local authority over resources
creates empowerment. The success of each mechanism was affected by
various context factors, including the proportion of income generated
for the family, capacity to engage in livelihood, cultural acceptability
of livelihood and the livelihood being logistically achievable to
partake in. Despite conservation education being a common strategy,
there was very little evidence provided of the reasoning of individuals
and subsequent behaviour changes from education programs. This is the
first application of a realist synthesis to community-based conservation
programs. The results advance our understanding of the decision-making
processes of communities subject to such programs, and highlight how
different contexts influence changes in conservation behaviour. Future
reporting of behavioural outcomes and the associated reasoning of
individuals and communities to engage, as well as the relevant
contextual data, is required for more informed and effective design of
community-based conservation programs.
Keywords
- Decision-making;
- Evaluations;
- Interventions;
- Programs;
- Review;
- Wildlife;
- Biodiversity;
- Stakeholders
