TY - JOUR
T1 - Unveiling pervasive assumptions
T2 - moving beyond the poverty-biodiversity loss association in conservation
AU - Carmenta, Rachel
AU - Lima, Mairon G.Bastos
AU - Choiruzzad, Shofwan A.B.
AU - Dawson, Neil
AU - Estrada-Carmona, Natalia
AU - Hicks, Christina
AU - Kallis, Giorgos
AU - Nana, Eric
AU - Killick, Evan
AU - Lees, Alexander
AU - Martin, Adria
AU - Pascual, Unai
AU - Pettorelli, Nathalie
AU - Reed, James
AU - Turnhout, Esther
AU - Vira, Bhaskar
AU - Zaehringer, Julie G.
AU - Barlow, Jos
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025
PY - 2025/6
Y1 - 2025/6
N2 - This paper reflects on the continued persistence of the idea in conservation research and practice that poverty drives biodiversity loss (the poverty-biodiversity loss association [PBLA]). We draw on evidence to show how the PBLA has proven resistant to counter-evidence and is particularly visible at local-level implementation, and is often implicit in conservation strategies. We untangle three underlying reasons that help to explain why the PBLA has persisted under a verisimilitude (seeming truth) that can leave it hiding in plain sight. In doing so, we offer conservation science and practice the means to recognise and thereby remedy this thinking where it exists, and in so doing, advance conservation towards its aims of equitable and effective delivery. We outline how the Connected Conservation model may be better equipped to challenge the disproportionate role of wealth in biodiversity decline whilst empowering biodiversity stewards and their plural knowledge, values and governance systems.
AB - This paper reflects on the continued persistence of the idea in conservation research and practice that poverty drives biodiversity loss (the poverty-biodiversity loss association [PBLA]). We draw on evidence to show how the PBLA has proven resistant to counter-evidence and is particularly visible at local-level implementation, and is often implicit in conservation strategies. We untangle three underlying reasons that help to explain why the PBLA has persisted under a verisimilitude (seeming truth) that can leave it hiding in plain sight. In doing so, we offer conservation science and practice the means to recognise and thereby remedy this thinking where it exists, and in so doing, advance conservation towards its aims of equitable and effective delivery. We outline how the Connected Conservation model may be better equipped to challenge the disproportionate role of wealth in biodiversity decline whilst empowering biodiversity stewards and their plural knowledge, values and governance systems.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105004391221
U2 - 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101537
DO - 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101537
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:105004391221
SN - 1877-3435
VL - 74
JO - Current opinion in environmental sustainability
JF - Current opinion in environmental sustainability
M1 - 101537
ER -