Conservation is often framed as a scientific or technical challenge — a matter of policies, protected areas and enforcement. But that lens has led conservation astray. Around the world, biodiversity continues to decline. Communities are too often displaced in the name of conservation. And conservation efforts sometimes fail because they ignore what matters most to the people who live closest to the land, including meaning, memory, and relationship.
It’s time to change course. If we want conservation to succeed — not just in halting species loss, but in building a sustainable, just future — we must place cultural and spiritual connections at its core.
That’s the central argument of our newly published paper in Community Development, co-created by more than 20 conservationists, Indigenous leaders, researchers and community practitioners across five continents who generously shared their experiences, insights and lived wisdom. Together, we developed a thematic model that demonstrates how community well-being, cultural identity, and biodiversity protection are not separate goals — they are mutually reinforcing.
