How conservation initiatives go to scale

Morena Mills, Michael Bode, Michael B. Mascia, Rebecca Weeks, Stefan Gelcich, Nigel Dudley, Hugh Govan, Carla L. Archibald, Cristina Romero-de-Diego, Matthew Holden, Duan Biggs, Louise Glew, Robin Naidoo, Hugh P. Possingham

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

Although a major portion of the planet’s land and sea is managed to conserve biodiversity, little is known about the extent, speed and patterns of adoption of conservation initiatives. We undertook a quantitative exploration of how area-based conservation initiatives go to scale by analysing the adoption of 22 widely recognized and diverse initiatives from across the globe. We use a standardized approach to compare the potential of different initiatives to reach scale. While our study is not exhaustive, our analyses reveal consistent patterns across a variety of initiatives: adoption of most initiatives (82% of our case studies) started slowly before rapidly going to scale. Consistent with diffusion of innovation theory, most initiatives exhibit slow–fast–slow (that is, sigmoidal) dynamics driven by interactions between existing and potential adopters. However, uptake rates and saturation points vary among the initiatives and across localities. Our models suggest that the uptake of most of our case studies is limited; over half of the initiatives will be taken up by <30% of their potential adopters. We also provide a methodology for quantitatively understanding the process of scaling. Our findings inform us how initiatives scale up to widespread adoption, which will facilitate forecasts of the future level of adoption of initiatives, and benchmark their extent and speed of adoption against those of our case studies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)935-940
Number of pages6
JournalNature Sustainability
Volume2
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2019
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Global and Planetary Change
  • Food Science
  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Ecology
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Urban Studies
  • Nature and Landscape Conservation
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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