Award: ICER-1414267

This project explored the idea of "success" in conservation - how can we measure success, and how can we enhance success? Success means different things to different people. This is especially important to consider in cases where conservation issues are interlinked with people?s livelihoods. Unfortunately, consideration of this human dimension has not been sufficiently integrated into conservation. This ultimately dooms many conservation projects to failure due to lack of support or active resistance from negatively impacted stakeholders. Achieving conservation success requires that diverse needs, experiences, and mindsets of people are considered, communicated, and incorporated into conservation planning. As such, the project focused evaluating these mindsets and how conservation actions lead to success or failure, with special consideration of interactions among stakeholders. This research primarily employed social-ecological research approaches, which study the ecological system and the interlinked human systems (social, economic, political) related to conservation issues. Key outcomes produced from this work are presented below. Hopefully, these key outcomes (to be presented in additional products in the coming year) will contribute to more successful approaches to conservation. 1) Stewardship: Many conservation projects tout the benefits of "stewardship." However, there are few efforts to meaningfully evaluate stewardship. This project developed a practical definition and framework of stewardship: it consists of stewardship ethics; actions; outcomes; and capacity that communities have to develop and maintain these stewardship ethics and actions. These are influenced by social, economic, and political context. This framework provides guidance for practical assessment of how stewardship efforts can be more successfully developed or strengthened. Outcomes: 2 presentations for the public (including fishing communities in Mexico) and 3 for academic audiences on stewardship in coastal management; Framework and research toolkit for evaluating stewardship; Records of fisheries stewardship efforts as collected through a template created through this project; Workshop and conference session co-organized on stewardship in small-scale fisheries 2) Conservation pathways: Many conservation efforts fail because they do not consider how actions might lead to outcomes. They often do not consider the complex social, economic, and political system in which conservation problems exist. Instead, conservation solutions are often based on an overly-simplified understanding of the system, leading to approaches that are not optimally designed. Such was the case in vaquita conservation in Mexico, where conservation of this critically endangered porpoise was impeded by conservation actions that inflamed conflict among stakeholders, leading to animosity against conservation, decreased well-being of local communities, and possibly greater threat to this animal as people were pushed, by economic reasons, into illegal fishing that threatens this species. Our research demonstrated the likely pathways from conservation actions to outcomes, including perspectives from all stakeholder groups and evaluation of relationships among those stakeholders, and identified likely areas where conservation failures could have been transformed into success. This approach could provide guidance for actions that improve the likelihood of conservation success. Outcomes: 3 presentations for the public (including fishing communities in Mexico) and 1 for academic audiences on conservation pathways and vaquita conservation; Public report on conservation pathways in vaquita conservation; Research toolkit for assessing conservation pathways; 2 contributed guest blog posts on vaquita conservation 3) Design Thinking: Design Thinking is an approach used for developing products for users, and is heavily based on the idea of human-centered research. It is an inherently participatory, multi-disciplinary, creative approach to focusing on what your user (or community) needs, experiences, and thinks, in order to design solutions that they truly want and will benefit from. It addresses many gaps in conservation, where meaningful involvement of local communities is still largely lacking. In a collaboration with Point B Design + Training, an NGO in Myanmar that conducts trainings on Design Thinking, this project used Design Thinking methods in coastal communities to reveal rich information on community interactions and perspectives related to conservation and fisheries management projects. Outcomes: 3 reports to fishing communities and 3 technical reports to universities and NGOs based on Design Thinking and social-ecological research; 3 research toolkits for Design Thinking approaches to fisheries management research 4) Building Capacity for Conservation Research: This project worked with several bright young minds, primarily from Mexico and Myanmar. These aspiring researchers gained training and experience in social-ecological conservation research, and broadened their understanding, skillsets, and opportunities for further professional development. This project also delivered two short courses. Outcomes: Curriculum and materials for "Tools for Studying People and the Sea: Basics of Social-Ecological Research" short course for Master?s students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Curriculum and materials for "Introduction to Marine Conservation Research" short course for faculty and students at Mawlamyine University; 5 field assistants (Mexico and Myanmar) and 2 faculty members at Mawlamyine University directly trained in social-ecological research methods; 1 undergraduate student from an under-represented group mentored in social-ecological research through the Scripps Undergraduate Research Fellowship summer program in San Diego Last Modified: 04/21/2018 Submitted by: Tara S Whitty