For too long, sustainability goals and environmental management have failed to consider the human side of conservation—how decisions affect people’s lives, and how human culture, values, and equity affect conservation outcomes.
Social science can contribute significantly to advancing and assessing conservation efforts. These are the conclusions of a perspectives paper published April 1 in Science by a team of researchers from 17 British, American and Australian institutions including the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and Washington Sea Grant.
The authors propose a set of social indicators that can be used to gauge how ecosystem management affects four essential factors in human lives: well-being, values, agency (the ability to act purposefully) and inequality. Considering such indicators, they note, serves not only to describe what exists but to define what is important in setting sustainability goals.
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