Finding ways of changing behaviour and promoting sustainable practices is the cornerstone of modern day conservation.
In a world dominated by humans, the solution to many conservation problems often won’t come from a better understanding of how wildlife respond to threats, like fishing or plastic pollution. Rather, it will come from understanding what strategies can be put in place to successfully navigate the human side of these stressors, whether that’s working to limit plastic pollution in the first place, or introducing new fishing practices to ensure that octopus populations don’t collapse and can keep feeding reliant coastal communities.
Another key to conservation is scalabilty. Developing interventions that can be rolled-out over large areas means backing conservation packages that, once proven successful, can be applied in new areas with similar results. It’s the difference between having one nice restaurant in a small town and a multinational restaurant chain.
One way of achieving scalability is to forge novel collaborations with partners that have the experience, resources and expertise needed to bring an idea to fruition. This might include working with businesses, engineers or marketers.
Net-Works is a nice example of a scalable conservation model that forged an alliance with the private sector to improve livelihoods and coastal marine habitats.
As it says on the tin:
“Net-Works is a collaboration between global carpet tile manufacturer Interface, Inc. and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). It tackles the growing environmental problem of discarded fishing nets in some of the world’s poorest coastal communities.
Net-Works enables fishing communities in developing countries to sell waste fishing nets into a global supply chain; an opportunity that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Interface receives a fully recycled source of nylon for carpet tile production, and the local community receives an additional source of income and long-term incentives to protect their coasts and waters.”
Net-Works is already successfully established in numerous sites across Cameroon and the Philippines and is scouting for new locations to get to work in as part of its ambitious 2020 goals.
