With Knowledge Comes Responsibility: Increasing Conservation Scientists’ Impact in a Time of Global Crises

Abstract

The dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss continue despite overwhelming scientific evidence of their impacts on human well-being and planetary health. Those of us working in the fields of conservation and ecology are acutely aware that current efforts to avert these crises are profoundly inadequate. But how are we, as professionals working in these fields, responding? We engage in many different activities from generating knowledge and educating students to communicating research findings. Some of us work to implement science-based evidence and advocate for policy change. A few of us engage in activism. In this perspective, we explore how to increase our impact by re-prioritizing how we spend our time on various activities and focus our efforts on actions most likely to lead to positive change. We offer an exercise to self-reflect and identify pathways to increase our impact. The escalating crises demand an urgent re-think from us all in how we currently spend our time.