IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v2y2019i10d10.1038_s41893-019-0384-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How conservation initiatives go to scale

Author

Listed:
  • Morena Mills

    (Imperial College London
    The University of Queensland
    The University of Queensland)

  • Michael Bode

    (Queensland University of Technology)

  • Michael B. Mascia

    (Conservation International)

  • Rebecca Weeks

    (James Cook University)

  • Stefan Gelcich

    (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)

  • Nigel Dudley

    (Equilibrium Research
    University of Queensland, St Lucia)

  • Hugh Govan

    (The University of the South Pacific)

  • Carla L. Archibald

    (The University of Queensland
    The University of Queensland
    University of Queensland, St Lucia)

  • Cristina Romero-de-Diego

    (The University of Queensland
    The University of Queensland
    University of Queensland, St Lucia)

  • Matthew Holden

    (The University of Queensland
    University of Queensland)

  • Duan Biggs

    (The University of Queensland
    Griffith University
    Stellenbosch University
    Stellenbosch University)

  • Louise Glew

    (World Wildlife Fund)

  • Robin Naidoo

    (World Wildlife Fund)

  • Hugh P. Possingham

    (The University of Queensland
    The Nature Conservancy)

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

Suggested Citation

  • 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, 2019. "How conservation initiatives go to scale," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 935-940, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:2:y:2019:i:10:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0384-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0384-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0384-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-019-0384-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bedelian, Claire & Ogutu, Joseph O. & Homewood, Katherine & Keane, Aidan, 2024. "Evaluating the determinants of participation in conservancy land leases and its impacts on household wealth in the Maasai Mara, Kenya: Equity and gender implications," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. Clark, Matt & Andrews, Jeffrey & Hillis, Vicken, 2022. "A quantitative application of diffusion of innovations for modeling the spread of conservation behaviors," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 473(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:2:y:2019:i:10:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0384-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.