New paper - Field bottlenecks and skill development for conservation social scientists led by the SSWG Student Affairs Committee

[Francisco Gelves Gomez]

Dear all I just wanted to share this new paper that emerges from STAC efforts, and led by Dr Laura Thomas-Walters.

We looked at “Field bottlenecks and skill development for conservation social scientists”

https://lnkd.in/est_BjhC

There is now wide recognition of the importance of understanding the human dimensions of conservation practice.

Effectively training the next generation of conservation social science professionals is therefore fundamental to the success of biodiversity conservation.

We surveyed 119 professionals working in conservation social science across the world. Our aim: identify the soft and technical skills that the conservation social science sector will most need over the next five years.

The top three soft skills are:
1) Cultural awareness & ability to understand the values and perspectives of others
2) People management & conflict resolution
3) Developing and maintaining inter/intra-organisational networks and working relationships

The top three technical skills are:
1) Behavior change expertise
2) Government and policy expertise
3) General critical thinking & problem-solving skills

Overall, we also find that current conservation social scientists believe students and early career conservationists should prioritize SOFT skills rather than technical skills to be effective.

Importantly, these skills were also correlated with the skills considered hardest to train on the job, & there was some variation in the importance of soft and technical skills by institution and region.

Lots more more details in the paper itself, and we also delve into the implications for training students and early career conservationists. elf, and we also delve into the implications for training students and early career conservationists.