What we do
We are a collaborative and interdisciplinary research group that looks to push the boundaries of conservation science by applying methods and theory from a wide range of disciplines to answer conservation questions. We believe, based on an understanding of human behaviour, conservation can better plan for human reactions to interventions.
There is a growing recognition that the management of nature is increasingly about understanding people and the decisions they make. This led to the establishment of the conservation and human behaviour research group known as ConHuB at Bangor University.
Our research falls under three themes, conservation, compliance, conflict and human well-being. We study who complies with rules and their motivations for doing so. Recognizing that this is fraught with challenges, we trial methods developed specifically for asking tricky questions. We consider how rules and the way they are enforced affect people's well being and willingness to comply. We also strive to understand how conflict arises in conservation. We consider how people's livelihoods, values and emotions vary, and how these differences affect people's well-being and their relationships with conservation efforts.
By doing so, we aim to develop holistic, equitable responses to inform conservation policy and practice. ConHuB is a collaborative and interdisciplinary research group who look to push the boundaries of conservation science by applying methods and theory from a wide range of disciplines to answer conservation questions. We believe, based on an understanding of human behaviour, conservation can better plan for human reactions to interventions.
If you are an academic, policy maker, practitioner or potential research student and you're interested in our work, please get in touch.
Our Work in Conservation
Protected areas form the cornerstone of national and international conservation strategies and play a vital role in the long-term protection of global biodiversity. Yet their success often requires the support of those living alongside them, particularly their compliance with protected area rules.
What factors influence people’s support for protected areas? What impacts their compliance with rules? How do we measure these? These are some of the questions the Conservation and Human Behaviour (ConHuB) project, led by Dr Freya St John, aim to answer. In doing so, our research draws on concepts from a range of disciplines, including development studies, criminology, and psychology, to improve our understanding of compliance in protected area contexts.
Between 2018 and 2024 the ConHuB project conducted research to explore the relationships between people and protected areas in two globally important conservation landscapes: The Leuser Ecosystem in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Ruaha-Rungwa landscape in central-southern Tanzania. Overall, we collected data from more than 4,500 people living next to these protected areas. You can read about our findings in different formats and languages.
Research Outputs
Current members
Past members
Stephen Sankeni
Stephen was the Lead Field Researcher of the Conservation and Human behaviour (ConHuB) project in Tanzania.
Jesca N. Mchomvu
Jesca was a Field Assistant for the ConHuB project in Tanzania where her role was to collect primary data from people living close to protected areas in the Ruaha-Rungwa landscape.
Joseph Francis Kaduma
Joseph was a Field Assistant for the ConHuB project in Tanzania where he collected primary data from people living close to protected areas in the Ruaha-Rungwa landscape.
Sorrel Jones
Sorrel is interested in social aspects of tropical forest conservation, with a focus on how to understand and monitor bushmeat hunting systems.
Rose Mawenya
Rose was Field Assistant for the ConHuB project in Tanzania where her role was to collect data from community members living close to protected areas in the Ruaha-Rungwa landscape.
Karlina
Karlina was a Team Leader for the ConHuB project in Indonesia where she collected data from people who live near protected areas across the Gunung Leuser landscape
Humairah Sabiladiyni (Ira)
Ira was Research Assistant for the ConHuB project in Indonesia, collecting data from people who live around the protected areas in the Gunung Leuser landscape.
Andie Wijaya Saputra (Jaya)
Jaya was Research Assistant for the ConHuB project in Indonesia where he collected data from people across the Gunung Leuser Landscape, Sumatra.
Ika Yuni Agustin
Ika was Research Assistant for the ConHuB project in Indonesia where she collected data to populate multiple models of human behaviour from people who live around Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia.
Tyassanti Trywidiarini
Tyas was a Research Assistant for the ConHuB project in Indonesia, collecting data from people that live in the Gunung Leuser landscape, Sumatra.
Publications
- Ibbett, H., Dorward, L., Jones, J. P. G., Kohi, E. M., Dwiyahreni, A. A., Sankeni, S., Prayitno, K., Mchomvu, J., Kaduma, J., Saputra, A. W., Agustin, I. Y., Tryswidiarini, T., Mawenya, R., Supriatna, J., & St John, F. A. V. (2024). Improving compliance around protected areas through fair administration of rules. Conservation Biology.
- Morgans, C. L., Jago, S., Andayani, N., Linkie, M., Lo, M. G. Y., Mumbunan, S., St. John, F. A. V., Supriatna, J., Voigt, M., Winarni, N. L., Santika, T., & Struebig, M. J. (2024). Improving well‐being and reducing deforestation in Indonesia’s protected areas. Conservation Letters.
- Dorward, L., Ibbett, H., Dwiyahreni, A. A., Kohi, E., Prayitno, K., Sankeni, S., Kaduma, J., Mawenya, R., Mchomvu, J., Sabiladiyni, H., Wijaya Saputra, A., Supriatna, J., Trywidiarini, T., & St John, F. A. V. (2024). Cross-Cultural Applications of the New Ecological Paradigm in Protected Area Contexts. Environment and Behavior.
- Ibbett, H., Jones, J. P. G., Dorward, L., Kohi, E. M., Dwiyahreni, A. A., Prayitno, K., Sankeni, S., Kaduma, J., Mchomvu, J., Wijaya Saputra, A., Sabiladiyni, H., Supriatna, J., & St John, F. A. V. (2023). A mixed methods approach for measuring topic sensitivity in conservation. People and Nature.
- Ibbett, H., Dorward, L.J., Kohi, E.M., Jones, J.P.G., Sankeni, S., Kaduma, J., Mchomvu, J., Mawenya, R. & St. John, F.A.V. (2023). Topic sensitivity still affects honest responding, even when specialized questioning techniques are used. Conserv. Sci. Pract., e12927.
- Ibbett, H., Dorward, L., Dwiyahreni, A. A., Jones, J. P. G., Kaduma, J., Kohi, E. M., Mchomvu, J., Prayitno, K., Sabiladiyni, H., Sankeni, S., Saputra, A. W., Supriatna, J., & St John, F. A. V. (2022). Experimental validation of specialized questioning techniques in conservation. Conservation Biology. 36:e13908
- Ibbett, H., Jones, J. P. G., & St. John, F. A. V. (2021). Asking sensitive questions in conservation using Randomised Response Techniques. Biological Conservation, 260, 109191.
Contact Us
If you are an academic, policymaker, practitioner or potential research student interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Funding and Collaborators
The ConHuB project received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 755965) and is a collaboration between Bangor University, the Research Centre for Climate Change Universitas Indonesia (RCCC-UI), Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), and Queen Mary University of London, UK.
