Abstract
AbstractConservation challenges occur in complex social-ecological systems that require scientists and practitioners to recognize and embrace that humans are active agents within these systems. This interdependence of the social and ecological components of systems necessitates effective leadership to address and solve conservation problems successfully. Although conservation practitioners increasingly recognize leadership as critical to achieve conservation goals, clarity about the term leadership remains elusive in terms of specific strategies and behaviours. Our objective in this review of conservation leadership scholarship was to build on prior literature to conceptualize and define the behavioural leadership strategies that lead to successful conservation outcomes. Following an initial review of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed publications, we conducted a systematic review of 59 articles utilizing an inductive analysis approach and identified a set of five leadership domains that contribute to positive conservation outcomes: (1) stakeholder engagement, (2) trust, (3) vision, (4) individual champion, and (5) excellence in internal attributes. Each domain is defined by 2–4 behaviours that we consider leadership practices. To sustain meaningful progress toward global conservation of biodiversity, conservation scientists and practitioners must embrace and invest in leadership as an integral component of solving our collective conservation challenges.
Highlights
Contemporary conservation issues are complex and require a deep understanding of social-ecological systems to design solutions that sustain both livelihoodsReceived November
Our definition of conservation leadership for the purpose of this review is ‘positively influencing others to engage in behaviours that contribute to a shared goal to protect and conserve social-ecological systems for the long-term health of the planet’
The stakeholder engagement domain represents the skills for working with diverse stakeholder groups and the importance of sharing decisionmaking with constituents who have something to gain or lose by conservation action
Summary
Contemporary conservation issues are complex and require a deep understanding of social-ecological systems to design solutions that sustain both livelihoodsReceived November. Conservation science, an interdisciplinary field that encompasses social and natural systems and their interactions and interdependencies (Kareiva & Marvier, ), recognizes that people are active agents in the functioning of these systems, and conservation professionals need to build an understanding of both the organizational and ecological systems in which they carry out their work (Black & Groombridge, ; Black et al, ). Integrating conservation science with processes that effectively mobilize people to achieve a conservation goal is largely a social challenge, involving human attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours, and requires leaders that understand and embrace this reality (Manolis et al, ). The term conservation leadership lacks a shared understanding, and broader leadership theories from nonconservation disciplines have been underused in their application to conservation and environmental sciences (Dietz et al, ; Manolis et al, ; Bruyere, ; Case et al, ; Englefield et al, ). Leadership has been considered one of ‘the most important attributes in the tool kit of a conservation biologist’ (Dietz et al, , p. )
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