An international perspective on the use of community engagement by conservation practitioners to support the management of inhabited islands

Abstract

Successful island conservation is critical to achieving global biodiversity targets, but significant gaps remain in our understanding of how to effectively engage island communities in conservation efforts. Social and political factors often play a major role in decision-making processes on inhabited islands, making effective community engagement critical. To better understand the issue, we conducted an international survey of practitioners across 43 islands to understand how they engage with local communities and which methods they consider to be most effective to support their conservation goals. Most respondents used at least one form of community engagement, many using five or more different methods. Communicative and consultative modes of engagement were most commonly used, which require fewer resources and less intensive participation by the community, while only half used the more demanding collaborative approaches to engagement. Indigenous co-management was reported by practitioners to be the most effective method for positive engagement and to support conservation outcomes, and was implemented on two-thirds of islands with an indigenous population. Our study supports the view that practitioners consider community engagement an important part of island conservation management, but that there is a tendency for practitioners to rely on one-way communication, rather than more resource intensive, collaborative approaches to working with communities. Future research should investigate how the communities themselves perceive different engagement methods to gain the full picture of engagement effectiveness.