On this episode, we take a look at how the social sciences can boost conservation efforts.

Our guest is Diogo Verissimo, a Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Oxford in the UK and the Institute for Conservation Research at the US-based San Diego Zoo Global. Verissimo designs and evaluates programs that aim to change human behavior as a means of combating the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products.

Verissimo is one of the leading researchers focused on adapting marketing principles and theory for conservation. Mongabay previously spoke with him about his Lost & Found project, which aims to tell the stories of species once thought to have gone extinct and the dedicated researchers who tracked them down and “re-discovered” those species in the wild. His work currently includes designing and evaluating a campaign to reduce demand for bear bile and gallbladder in Cambodia, and designing guidance materials for conservation scientists and practitioners working on issues related to the demand for illegal wildlife products.

While we all come in contact with marketing campaigns nearly every single day of our lives, conservationists have been much slower to employ marketing principles in the interest of influencing human behaviors that are harmful to the planet. We discuss with Verissimo the intersection of social marketing and conservation science — in other words, how the social sciences can provide us with a better understanding of human motivation and behavior and help create a more sustainable world.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• World’s first indigenous REDD+ program suspended due to illegal mining
• Forests and indigenous rights land $459M commitment
• California targets fossil fuel-free electricity by 2045

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Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

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