Plain Language Summary: Collaborative Solutions for Wildlife Conservation on Private Land.

By Matthew Taylor, Aidan Davison, and Andrew Harwood.

Read the full paper here.

Wildlife populations are facing rapid declines globally, and this problem is particularly urgent on private lands, where habitat loss, fragmentation, and conflicting land uses present significant conservation challenges. In these landscapes, traditional conservation strategies, which often involve top-down approaches, are frequently insufficient. Our research explores a new, more inclusive method known as transdisciplinary pathways, which brings together scientists, landholders, policymakers, and conservation practitioners to collaboratively design and implement conservation efforts.

Transdisciplinary approaches are unique because they involve the co-production of knowledge. This means that the people who manage the land, like farmers and landholders, work side-by-side with scientists to create conservation strategies that are not only scientifically robust but also practical and economically viable. This partnership helps ensure that conservation goals align with local landholders’ economic needs and land management practices, making them more likely to be successful over the long term.

Our research focuses on two case studies from Tasmania, Island Ark and WildTracker, which show how this approach works in practice. In Island Ark, landholders collaborated with conservation groups and researchers to reconnect fragmented landscapes, enhancing habitat for native wildlife while also exploring ways to integrate conservation with farming through incentives like carbon credits. Meanwhile, WildTracker engaged landholders directly in wildlife monitoring, allowing them to collect data on species using their land and contribute to conservation decisions. These projects demonstrate that by involving landholders in the entire process, from planning to implementation, we can create more effective, scalable conservation strategies that work across fragmented landscapes.

The outcomes of these case studies suggest that transdisciplinary pathways offer a promising solution to the complex challenges of conserving wildlife on private land. By bridging the gap between policy, scientific research, and local land management practices, this approach allows for adaptive and context-specific solutions that better support both biodiversity and landholder livelihoods. Our findings highlight the importance of collaborative conservation approaches that respect local knowledge and encourage active participation from landholders, creating more resilient conservation strategies that can be sustained over time.