Plain Language Summary: Sensemaking and abductive reasoning for transformative biodiversity conservation.

By Gonzalo Cortés-Capano, Jacqueline Loos, Anna Hausmann, and Teea Kortetmäki.

Read the full paper here.

To effectively conserve biodiversity, there is an urgent need for novel approaches that expand the ways we produce and use knowledge in the complex systems that we share with other people and non-humans. Biodiversity conservation often deals with incomplete information, unpredictable situations, and diverse views and interests from various groups with different knowledge, power, values and ethical positions. Beyond improving already existing conservation strategies, there is a need to create innovative, action-oriented solutions that consider these different perspectives and knowledge systems. However, the best ways to drive real change in conservation are still unclear. This article explores how sensemaking processes and creative reasoning can help solve complex problems and conservation challenges in new and fairer ways. We explain how sensemaking, the ability to interpret and respond to unexpected situations from active experience, helps addressing both simple and complex conservation issues. We introduce abductive reasoning, a method of reasoning that focuses on exploring the logic of “what might be”, to better understand surprising observations and act to address complex problems. By using examples, we show how researchers, practitioners and other actors working on biodiversity conservation can co-create enquiries that simultaneously enhance scientific rigor with social relevance, helping to effectively tackle conservation issues. We argue that encouraging attention, curiosity, and creativity helps people discover, rethink and organize the uncertain, interconnected challenges in biodiversity conservation. When combined with action-oriented research, sensemaking and abductive reasoning can inspire new ways of thinking about conservation problems and create space for plural values and knowledge systems. Collaborative efforts that bring together diverse groups for collective sensemaking can lead to practical, context-sensitive solutions, while also fostering learning and improving our shared ability to protect biodiversity. Finally, we highlight the main challenges in using sensemaking processes in conservation and offer suggestions for overcoming these obstacles to better support transformative biodiversity conservation. Paraphrasing Marcel Proust, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”.