Understanding and Shifting Power in Biodiversity Conservation by Integrating Insights from Social Change Movements

POWERSHIFT addresses complex social-ecological challenges of biodiversity conservation and restoration by placing power dynamics at the centre of analysis, as a critical lever for transformative change. Power relations shape whose voices are prioritised, how conservation problems are framed, and which actions are implemented. While biodiversity loss demands systemic change, many current initiatives overlook power dynamics that enable or constrain such change. POWERSHIFT introduces a novel “Strategy Ecosystem” approach that situates individual conservation efforts within a broader strategic landscape, highlighting the roles, interactions, and leverage points of diverse actors across local and global ecosystems.
Our primary scientific objective is to understand how power operates within and between conservation initiatives across different collaborative networks, how it shapes social-ecological outcomes, and how it can be leveraged to design more effective and transformative conservation strategies. The project is explicitly interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, ecology, and political science to generate rigorous, actionable, and policy-relevant knowledge aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity decline within a justice and equity framing.
Four work packages deliver outcomes at multiple scales. WP1 examines power dynamics at local, initiative, and network scales through actor and context analysis, extensive fieldwork, and qualitative and quantitative interviews, generating novel insights into the interplay of power across conservation contexts. WP2 supports future strategies for practitioners by organising transdisciplinary workshops to raise awareness, align approaches, and co-develop practical scenarios for addressing power imbalances, strengthening both societal and policy relevance. WP3 fosters continuous learning and adaptive management through reflective practice, capacity building for local interventions, and the use of Action Learning Sets for conservation initiatives, while also integrating researcher self-reflection into the process. WP4 synthesises insights from WPs 1–3 by engaging policymakers and supporting cross-movement and transnational collaboration, testing and scaling power-mitigation strategies across diverse social and environmental settings.
By focusing on power dynamics within local interventions and across networks of initiatives, POWERSHIFT advances understanding of how to shift power imbalances to enable more effective, inclusive, and transformative conservation strategies. Its reflection-based methodology, which incorporates multiple dimensions of power, combined with transnational and transdisciplinary collaboration, supports cross-border exchange of best practices and insights. This enhances policy relevance and promotes the uptake of socially equitable and environmentally sustainable conservation practices, directly addressing the call’s scope of contributing to systemic transformation in conservation efforts.