In this infographic the authors of ‘Intervener trustworthiness predicts cooperation with conservation interventions in an elephant conflict public goods game‘ summarise their research — out today!

The authors have also written a plain language summary ‘The importance of intervener trustworthiness in conservation‘.

Zachary Baynham-Herd and colleagues explored how people living in communities experiencing elephant conflict in Tanzania respond to different interveners and whether these relationships are driven by perceptions of intervener trustworthiness. Using an experimental public-goods game, they found that respondents were more likely to cooperate in the game with interveners that they perceived to be more trustworthy. These findings suggest that trust-building, and consideration of who is best placed to intervene in conflicts, may help increase community support for conservation interventions. Thanks go to the communities of Enduimet, the WMA staff, and Honeyguide Foundation for helping with this research. Thanks also to research assistants Stephen Sankeni and Joseph Sankeni who made this study possible.