Social Network Analysis as an Aid to Landscape-scale Conservation

There is increasing agreement that protecting esteemed and ecologically vital components of the biosphere will require collaborative environmental management approaches focused at the landscape scale. A growing number of studies suggest that organizations like the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative play an important role in facilitating transformations to such co-management arrangements (by creating social networks wherein knowledge co-production, trust building, social learning, vertical and horizontal collaboration, and conflict resolution can occur). However, to date, tools for explicitly examining the efficacy of comanagement arrangements in advancing socially and ecologically tenable landscape-scale conservation have not been forthcoming. Social Network Analysis––the formal study of social entities (e.g., conservation organizations), their relationships with other entities, and the patterns and implications of these interactions––helps address this limitation. This webinar presents the theoretical foundations, methods, and results of a recent social network analysis of the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative. Based on the study’s findings, it will be suggested that Social Network Analysis can be an important tool for understanding and improving collaborative landscape-scale conservation efforts in the Great Northern region and beyond.