More-than-human conservation: A social-ecological participatory approach to change our relationships with biodiversity


Christine Beaudoin, Université de l'Ontario français

In the context of Anthropocene, which correlates with environmental crises and wicked problems, working together is seen as a way to simultaneously improve both social justice and ecological outcomes. Calls for collaboration can be answered with transdisciplinary, participatory approaches that value different worldviews and work for a diversity of actors to be included in the co-production of knowledge, programs, and policies. Furthermore, implementing a social-ecological lens is useful to make sense of the complexity of environmental issues. It can mobilize transdisciplinary participation to consider social and ecological relationships. For example, collaborative mapping of social-ecological systems in participatory workshops with diverse actors can facilitate social learning and trust among participants as well as lead to identification of leverage points and recommendations for improving biodiversity outcomes in ways that align with local communities. However, questions can also be raised about this collaborative turn, and more specifically what role it leaves for non-humans: the very animals, microorganisms, plants, birds, fish, insects, and waters whom we are trying to protect. In fact, there is a paradox within biodiversity conservation. People do this work to preserve the environment and out of passion for nature, yet the relationships between humans and non-humans in this context are often tense and at times even conflictual or violent (Beaudoin 2022, doctoral thesis). Calls for collaboration lead to meetings with a diversity of stakeholders, yet they are often held in office spaces where other species and abiotic elements from the environment are excluded. I thus mobilize a relational approach to reflect on the place of non-humans in science, in communities, and in decision-making processes that directly concern them and their well-being. This brings into question the positivist and dualist onto-epistemology that underlies conservation research and practice. There is thus a need to further unpack the tensions and frictions between humans and non-humans in the context of biodiversity conservation. Different pathways are possible to explore how to address these tensions with non-humans in relation to the biodiversity crisis. First, we need to value and make space for worldviews that relate to non-humans in more egalitarian terms, including consideration of local Indigenous worldviews and teachings. Second, we can experiment with the concept of more-than-human coproduction and the living labs framework to assess the boundaries of transspecies collaboration. Finally, we should explore lessons from the collaborative and see what is transferable in order to improve our relationships with non-humans. Such work requires a critical analysis of collaboration, which is not a panacea. This work builds on research projects conducting applied conservation social science in Ontario. More specifically, I present two ongoing projects: (1) landowner engagement for biodiversity conservation in Northumberland County, and (2) expert elicitation to support the Long Point Walsingham Point Forest Priority Place. Using mixed methods and participatory approaches, I develop analyses and recommendations to improve social-ecological alignment in various systems. My own participation in applied conservation research also allows me to gain a better understanding of the onto-epistemological assumptions behind this work. Through reflexivity and autoethnographic analysis, my applied work thus feeds my critical analysis of conservation research and practice. I build on science studies and ecofeminism and call for more ethical and more just conservation research and practice: that of more-than-human conservation.

This paper will be presented at the following session: