Conservation Social Sciences Resources

The SSWG advocates for and educates on the appropriate and rigorous (systematic, standardized, repeatable, and transparent) use of philosophical positionality, research design, methodology, analysis, and evaluation to strengthen the conservation social sciences and their systematic application to conservation practice.

Online Resources

Note: A substantial number of these resources were identified in “Human Dimensions Tools and Resources” by US Geological Service, Colorado State University and US Fish & Wildlife Service. The report authors noted that the document contains links to freely accessible internet resources for a variety of human dimensions of natural resources topic areas. These resources are in no way meant to be exhaustive, but were compiled in an effort to provide managers, planners, and decision-makers with useful starting points for understanding and addressing their human dimensions related issues. We gratefully acknowledge this list of tools!

Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values

These links provide guidance, secondary data, and select publications related to public attitudes, beliefs and values.

Guidance

Data

Select Publications

Communication

These links provide information on best practices, tips, and evaluation of conservation communication.

Guidance

Select Publications

Conflict Resolution

These links provide information on defining stakeholder conflict in conservation, training and capacity building workshops, and additional resources on conflict resolution

Demographics

These links provide guidance on the use of secondary demographic data, secondary data on the population characteristics of communities at various scales, and select publications. The U.S. Census Bureau is the primary source of secondary census data and offers a variety of ways to access and display demographic information.

Guidance

 Data

Select Publications

Economics and Socioeconomics

These links provide guidance on the importance, collection and use of economic and socioeconomic information, secondary data and select publications that utilize this type of data.

Guidance

Data

 Analysis Tools

Select Publications

Ethics in Education and Research

Guidance

Responsible Conduct of Research
Environmental Justice

Guidance

Land Use

These links provide guidance, secondary data, and select publications on a variety of topics related to humans and the environment.

Guidance

Data

Select Publications

Maps and Mapping

Principles, Practices, and Methods

These links provide useful technical references for human dimensions theory, data collection, and analysis techniques. Also included are broader resources providing basic guidance in the application of social science to conservation practice.

Guidance

Recreation

Guidance

Data

Select Publications

Sense of Place

Guidance

Stakeholder Engagement, Collaborative Planning, and Conflict Resolution

These links provide guidance on a variety of topics related to communicating and working with members of the public on natural resource-related issues.

Guidance

Tools

Example Networks

Select Publications

Consultants

Subsistence

Guidance

Sustainability

Guidance

Data

Select Publications

Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Subsistence

Guidance