J Environ Stud Sci (2016) 6:515519

DOI 10.1007/s13412-015-0353-6

Have you got what it takes? Looking at skills and needs

of the modern marine conservation practitioner
E. C. M. Parsons 1 & R. MacPherson 2

Published online: 26 November 2015

# AESS 2015

Keywords Marine conservation . Skills . Training .

Inter-disciplinary . Undergraduate / graduate studies .
Conservation biology

Across the globe, there are numerous universities offering students programs in conservation biology. But what exactly is
conservation biology? This was recently asked during a project
documenting the history of the Society for Conservation Biology.
If (like 99 % of undergraduate students), you look at Wikipedia
first, it is described as the study, and ascertaining the status, of
biodiversity with the aim of protecting species and habitats from
extinction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_biology).
This is largely based on the definition given by Soul (1985).
Soul (1985) noted that conservation biology is Bholistic,^
concerned with the science of establishing the long-term viabilities of populations and ecosystems, taking into account dimensions of management, and also that species and ecosystems are
not static but are dynamic and evolve. Moreover, although itis
called conservation Bbiology,^ its generally a field that is considered to be interdisciplinary. Soul (1985) also mentions the
importance of public policy, ecophilosophy (e.g., animal and
environmental ethics), historical biogeography, and in particular
the Bdependence of the biological sciences on social science
disciplines^ (p. 727), although scientific disciplines (such as
biogeography, veterinary science, physiology, and population

* E. C. M. Parsons
ecm-parsons@earthlink.net
1

Department of Environmental Science & Policy, George Mason

University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 5F2, Fairfax, VA 22030,
USA

Coral Reef Alliance, Oakland, CA, USA

biology) featured first and foremost in his seminar paper. Other

conservation practitioners subsequently agreed about the importance of having an interdisciplinary approach to conservation
(e.g., Jacobson and McDuff 1998). In fact, in most conservation
biology textbooks (e.g., Hunter 1996; Meffe and Groom 2006)
the importance of multiple discipline contribution to conservation is highlighted, and how fields such as anthropology, law,
arts, and education can all benefit conservation practice. Social
sciences such as sociology, psychology, and economics are increasingly being brought into conservation programs, and these
skills are being sought by conservation groups. It is certainly no
coincidence that the social science working group of the Society
for Conservation Biology (the professional society for conservation scientists and practitioners; http://www.conbio.org/) is
one of the largest and most active groups within the society. In
fact, the field is becoming so interdisciplinary that the Governors
of the Society for Conservation Biology have discussed
changing its name to "the Society for Conservation Science"
as many of its professional members and practitioners are not
biologists but rather social scientists, managers, geographers,
and increasingly psychology and science communications
specialists.
There is however much resistance to this idea. For example, a colleague of one of us, teaching a conservation biology
class, once defined Ba conservation biologist is simply a biologist who studies threatened species^ (ECMP pers., obs.).
Perhaps, this used to be the case, but we would argue that today,
the field of conservation biology goes beyond that. However,
how often do we see papers published purporting conservation
biology that are really just physiological or ecological papers
that just happen to be on threatened species? There have been a
number of new conservation journals that have appeared (for
example, Conservation Letters) that specifically highlight that
they accept multi- and interdisciplinary papers. Certainly, and
increasingly, graduate students studying conservation and

516

environmental issues are aware of the interdisciplinary nature of

conservation (Parsons 2012), and a number of conservation
biology practitioners have likewise argued about the importance of the human aspects of conservation.
A recent paper by Blickley et al. (2013) specifically investigated the skills that are been sought in job advertisements
related to (nonacademic) conservation positions in 2011 (17
international, 43 US based), and 74 % noted a scientific disciplinary skill was required (e.g., ecology, avian biology) as
well as 5 non-science skills: specifically project management,
program leadership, interpersonal skills, written communication, and the ability to network. Non-profit jobs tended to favor
project management and interpersonal, outreach, and networking skills, more than government jobs, which in turn favored
these more than private sector positions, whereas government
jobs were more likely to request scientific knowledge or research technique/analytical experience (Blickley et al. 2013).
This study also interviewed a small pool (n = 14) of conservation professionals, and although specific scientific discipline,
analytical or technique-oriented skills were a priority, interpersonal skills and project management were also ranked very
highly. They also noted that of these latter two wants, interpersonal skills were much harder to teach during Bon the job^
training (Blickley et al. 2013). In terms of project management
requirements, they did say that simply organizing a graduate
project was not sufficient evidence of management skillsbut
rather organizing events for professional societies, or conference organizing, was a better indicator of ability and experience. Moreover, simply writing a thesis did not qualify for
evidence of written communication skills (Blickley et al. 2013).
As noted above, a number of papers have been written on
the skills and training required by conservation biologists
(Jacobson 1990; Adelman et al. 1994; Touval 1994; Cannon
et al. 1996; Jacobson and McDuff 1998; Inouye and Dietz
2000; Shaw 2000; Clark 2001; Bonine et al. 2003; Campbell
et al. 2005; Perez 2005; van Heezik and Seddon 2005; Kainer
et al. 2006; Martinich et al. 2006; Fisher et al. 2009; Manolis
et al. 2009; Muir and Schwartz 2009; Parsons 2012; Blickley
et al. 2013, but these papers have addressed generic conservation, rather than the conservation in marine environment,
which in many ways is very different to terrestrial conservation (e.g., Norse and Crowder 2005). To address the issue of
what is marine Bconservation^ on this day and age and thus
the skills required, a workshop was held to gather thoughts
and ideas from a group of conservation practitioners and scientists working in the marine environment.

What skills are required for marine conservation

in the twenty-first century?
On 12 October 2013, a workshop (entitled: Conservation:
BYou keep using that word, I do not think it means what you

J Environ Stud Sci (2016) 6:515519

think it means) was held in Miami which was attended by a

diverse assemblage of marine conservation scientists and
practitioners. The participants included academics, marineprotected area or species managers, marine conservation science journalists, communicators, and educators to grant givers
for marine conservation projects. The participants came to the
conclusion that being a marine conservationist involves the
following:
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
&

Managing people and behaviors

Identifying stakeholders and their stakes
Understanding human nature and social structures; understanding who and what youre working with
Putting conservation into relatable terms and perspective
Distinguishing conservation vs. preservation
Using science to impact change
Using feedback to evaluate further research
Determine what policy makers need to know
Assuming the precautionary principlejust providing science will not dictate policy

When asked what skills are required for (marine) conservation in the twenty-first century, training courses for a
(marine) conservationist require the following in addition to
(marine) science:
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
&

Environmental law
Communication theory to promote behavior change
Conflict transformation
Environmental economics
Politics and sociology (especially with respect to conservation values and beliefs)
Marketing skills
Anthropology and psychology
History (for an ecological and political perspective)

Other skills that were mentioned included an appreciation

for the humanities, creative artistic skills, which might be useful in helping to interpret marine conservation issues such as
designing images that have novel ways of presenting data, and
cinematographic and photographic skills to produce images
that might help influence behaviors. Dramatic and even dance
skills could be useful for helping to interpret marine conservation issues to the public and target groups. Hobbies such as
fishing, sailing, and diving were noted as usefulthese might
help give a common understanding with maritime stakeholders. Not entirely tongue in cheek, drinking skills were
mentioned, as very often common ground and understanding
with stakeholders can be found during shared conversation in
an informal atmosphere in a bar or pub. Along those lines,
several people mentioned the importance of karaokeespecially in Asian communitiesas willingness to embarrass
yourself in public helps to break down Bthem and us^ barriers

J Environ Stud Sci (2016) 6:515519

and allow the conservation practitioner to be seen as a peer or

even friend, instead of an adversary.
The importance of interacting with stakeholders and getting them on your side is probably more important in the
marine environment than in the terrestrial environment as marine conservation is typically more expensive, more logistically difficult, and yet underfunded when compared to marine
conservation (Norse and Crowder 2005), and so conservation
implementation is often reliant upon the goodwill of marine
users. Moreover, marine users have more of a history of being
able to utilize marine resources with minimal management,
whereas users of the terrestrial environment have more of
culture of be managed by authorities (Norse and Crowder
2005), and thus getting marine stakeholders to accept management may be more challenging and may require greater
social skills and understanding.
A key comment was that that advocacy is important for
marine conservation scientists in the twenty-first century
(see below). Advocacy is important for terrestrial conservation
science but arguably even more so for the marine environment, as public awareness of marine species and conservation
issues are generally low, human interest in exploiting marine
resources is high (whether it be fishing, shipping, or oil extraction and other forms of energy or resources), and many
marine issues are Bout of sight out of mind,^ whereas terrestrial conservation problems may be more immediately visible.
To get feedback on these results, the conclusions were presented in front of a class of graduate students (n = 16) studying
conservation science, and they envisaged what a modern marine conservation academic program might entail a core
consisting of the following:
1. Specialized courses in a scientific discipline such as marine biology, fisheries science, biological oceanography,
environmental GIS, population ecology, and conservation
genetics. The scientific discipline courses would include
courses on techniques and especially statistical analysis.
This would give a basic grounding on scientific methods,
principles, and literacy, with some specialization in a particular discipline.
2. Courses related to communication and conflict resolution
with the publicthese would include materials on environmental attitudes, communication and marketing theory, environmental psychology, and social science survey
techniques as a means of obtaining information on stakeholder attitudes and opinions. An important component of
these courses would be conflict resolution/transformation
theory.
3. Courses on environmental law, policy, and economics.
These would include course content on (i) how laws are
developed; (ii) how regulations produced and laws implemented; (iii) EIA processes and how laws are enforced;
and (iv) legal feedback loops such as public appeals and

517

petitions, in addition to details of the most important laws

themselves. International law would also be important
such as key international treaties and how international
diplomacy works. On a more local level, conservation
can also occur thanks to state or provincial laws or even
voluntary agreements/co-management regimes, and examples of these are important. Finally, environmental economics is a vital component as politicians deal in economic realities, and being able to evaluate conservation in
terms of ecosystem services, tourism revenue, and jobs
created can be an important addition to the toolbox of
the modern conservation practitioner regardless of whether one considers economic factors to essential to modern
conservation or not (for example, see the argument over
so-called "new conservation": Soul 2013 versus Marvier
2014).
One could argue that the three topics above are ultimately
the three pillars of modern conservation: (a) accurate science,
(b) human values towards and understanding of conservation
and how to improve these, and (c) and understanding of the
institutions and mechanisms by which conservation interventions can be achieved and managed. Alongside these three
pillars of courses, there should arguably be at least one course
in conservation ethics, as good ethical practice is essential for
good professional practice (see http://www.conbio.org/aboutscb/who-we-are/code-of-ethics for the Society for
Conservation Biologys code of ethics).
With such an interdisciplinary program, it could be argued
that the modern marine conservation practitioner should not
necessarily be pigeonholed as a marine conservation biologist,
or perhaps even not a marine conservation scientist (although
an understanding of science is extremely important, if not
crucial), but perhaps the term Bmarine conservationist^ might
better reflect the interdisciplinary nature and training needed
for an effective marine conservation practitioner in the modern
world.
The interdisciplinary nature of modern marine conservation was certainly apparent in the 2014 meeting of the SCB
marine sectionthe 3rd International Marine Conservation
Congress (http://www.conbio.org/mini-sites/imcc-2014); a
third of symposium sessions and two thirds of workshop
sessions were on either communication skills needed by
marine conservationists or policy and engagement with
stakeholders, managers, and regulators.
Thus, there seems to be an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of marine conservation amongst practitioners
and graduate students. But has this transferred to academia?
Probably not, as there are few interdisciplinary undergraduate
or graduate programs that cater to marine conservation, and
academic departments tend to be very single-discipline
oriented (for example, focusing solely on fisheries modeling,
oceanography, or maritime law and policy), and there are few

518

that are truly interdisciplinary. One of the difficulties may be,

as with many interdisciplinary programs, is that faculty were
trained in specific, single-discipline programs and are physical
oceanographers, or ichthyologists, or maritime lawyers, potentially without much Breal-world^ experience of conservation practice. As such, they do not necessarily understand
other disciplines, or what they can bring to the table, and
would prefer depth in one narrow field of study rather than a
more superficial, but broad, level of expertise. Academic departments that compartmentalize less - and that during evaluations and tenure decisions give credit to, and do not penalize,
faculty that have diverse skill sets and that regularly engage in
Breal-world^ conservation activity - will likely have instructors, and thus graduates, that fit better with the needs of marine
conservation in the twenty-first century.

Marine conservation science, advocacy,

and communication
There has been for some time a debate as to whether conservation scientists should advocate for their science (ShraderFrechette 1996; Lackey 2007; Noss 2007; Chan 2008; Nelson
and Vucetich 2009; Parsons 2013; Rose and Parsons 2015).
For many marine conservation scientists, advocacy was often
considered to be almost a dirty word. However, it has been
argued that advocacy of marine conservation science is really
making sure the right scientific information gets into the right
hands, in the right format, at the right time (Parsons 2013).
Few policy - makers read scientific journals; indeed with the
plethora of journals available, scientists rarely can keep up
with the deluge of information (Parsons 2013). So advertising
and making marine conservation science more available
should be an important component of training for the modern
marine conservation scientist. In the Internet age, this might
include training on tools for distributing conservation papers
and data, for example, via social media such as Twitter, which
increasingly is becoming an important medium for sharing the
latest marine conservation science (Darling et al. 2013; Parsons et al. 2014).
Although there are exceptions, many marine scientists are
not great public communicators. Graduate students studying
conservation increasingly take classes from multiple disciplines and are required to take classes, such as statistics and
environmental law, in addition to science classes. But we do
not require students to take classes related to effective communication techniques, one of the core skill groups noted
above. You need different methods to communicate with different groups: an indigenous community on a South Pacific
island requires a different approach to meeting with congressional aides; a group of angry fisherman requires a different
approach to a class of elementary school pupils. An integral
part of the training of a marine conservation biologist/scientist

J Environ Stud Sci (2016) 6:515519

should be classes in communication (Parsons 2012) and how

to appropriately engage with stakeholders and policy makers
(Rose and Parsons 2015) . As we said above, if you cannot
advocate your conservation science (and by which we mean
get unbiased conservation science to those parties that really
need the information, in a format they can understand) biodiversity will continue to decline and we ultimately fail to be
conservation biologists. Therefore, encouragement and advice
(e.g., Parsons 2013) for how to communicate and advocate
conservation science should be an essential part of a modern
marine conservationists toolkit.

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