De-colonizing conservation in a global world

Humans form an integral part of most ecosystems on earth. To prevent habitat and species loss and destruction, social justice must, therefore, be at the core of conservation efforts. Traditional conservation education approaches focus on building knowledge, skills, and awareness amongst local communities with the hope of leading to behavior change resulting in the protection of species and ecosystems. The principal drivers of threats to these ecosystems, however, are often not the local people but rather the interests of industry, governments and consumers in distant places. To mitigate and abate the threats to ecosystems, conservation approaches must be both localized and decolonized, including on all the relevant stakeholders. This starts by ensuring that industry, government, and financing institutions have the skills and incentives to avoid harm to the people, wildlife, and ecosystems they exploit, and ensuring that local and indigenous communities are not only informed, but much more engaged in leading the activities that affect them or their land/resources. Essentially, it is the behavior of the global community that must change with respect to the consumption, utilization, and extraction of tropical forest resources and conservation targets must reflect this. Conservation can only be successful when the threats to ecosystems are adequately understood and local people are part of the design and leadership of conservation efforts. This commentary provides specific examples of how conservation education can focus on the drivers of threats, building expertize in the relevant audiences and partners.