People interact with their environment through
their behavior-their decisions, practices, and
actions. The behavior of individuals and groups
forms the interface between ecological systems
and social systems. Behaviors, therefore, pro-
vide a "window" into those systems. The study
summarized in this report examined processes
and methods for looking through that behav-
ioral window in order to understand the con-
text and motivations underlying behaviors rel-
evant to conservation and natural resources
management, and to influence those behaviors
to promote the sustainability of the natural re-
source base.

Some behaviors deplete natural resources or de-
grade the environment, while other behaviors
use resources sustainably, without degrading or
depleting them. Promoting sustainable natural
resources management requires efforts to main-
tain certain behaviors and change others. Nev-
ertheless, underlying this study is a fundamen-
tal assumption that actors at all levels-local,
national, and international-are acting in ways
that they perceive to be in their own best inter-
est, given their background, their values, and
their situation. Outsiders-actors from national
or international levels-should assume that lo-
cal people who use and manage resources di-
rectly are making what they perceive to be the
best choices they can, given their options. An-
other fundamental assumption underlying the
study described here, however, is the view that
sustaining the natural resource base is a value
that should be supported. We will use the terms
conservation" and "sustainable natural re-
sources management" interchangeably through-
out this report.

Each individual, community, and society makes
decisions about how to use the natural resources
in its environment in the context of its own ar-
ray of values. Successful conservation requires
integrating the values and interests of a range

of actors and "stakeholders" from all levels (lo-
cal, national, and international), and this pro-
cess requires the active participation of those
actors and stakeholders.

Many conceptual models of the process of un-
derstanding and influencing behavior have been
developed and used in conservation, agricul-
tural extension, and health promotion. Such
models can help practitioners organize, plan,
and manage the process of understanding and
influencing behavior. We examine some of
those models in Chapter II, and then present
our own model of the process.

The process described in our model is based on
a hierarchy that conceptually links inputs and
goals-means and ends-in a programmatic
sense. As depicted in this hierarchical model,
people who want to foster conservation use re-
sources to carry out activities with some group
of actors-these are the means used in the pro-
cess. The activities and actors then influence
the factors that determine, influence, or moti-
vate behaviors, and those behaviors, in turn, af-
fect social and environmental conditions-the
ends, or goals, of the process. The levels of the
hierarchy represent a chain of cause and effect
that can be used to plan, implement, and evalu-
ate activities.

The process described by this model can be di-
vided into four stages-assessment and re-
search, planning, implementation, and evalua-
tion. In our field work we found that the first
stage of the process, assessment and research,
is often neglected. We found, for example, that
activities designed to influence environmental
behaviors are often based on untested, and
sometimes mistaken, assumptions made by
their planners and implementers. Assumptions
about what motivates behaviors, or whether
those behaviors are sustainable, are not often
checked through social assessment. Especially

of a kind that involves real participation by the
actors themselves. Therefore, to meet the criti-
cal need, we emphasized that stage of the pro-
cess in our analysis.

The assessment and research stage of the pro-
cess involves working with people to under-
stand the context of, and motivations for, their
decisions, practices, and actions. We have di-
vided this stage of the process into three steps:
(1) assessing the situation, (2) identifying criti-
cal behaviors, and (3) understanding the key
factors that influence critical behaviors. Chap-
ter III discusses those steps in some detail.

motivates a given behavior involves going first
to the resource users and trying to understand
their decision making. This approach asks them
-albeit indirectly sometimes-why they do
what they do, rather than assuming anything
about their motivations. The idea is to deter-
mine what the actors themselves see as the ben-
efits of, and barriers to, a given behavior
(Middlestadt, et al., 1993).

Neither a systematic process nor methods and
tools for gathering social information is suffi-
cient by itself for understanding and influenc-
ing natural resource management behaviors; a
combination of process and methods is needed.
Information-gathering methods and tools alone
do not provide a conceptual framework for set-
ting goals and objectives, designing and imple-
menting activities, and evaluating the effective-
ness of those activities. But a conceptual frame-
work alone is useless without methods and tools
for applying it. In Chapter V. we move toward
a synthesis of process and methods by present-
ing illustrative examples of how specific infor-
mation-gathering methods and tools can be
matched with each step of the assessment pro-
cess.

Some scholars and practitioners express the
view that only trained social scientists can, or
should, do the social assessment and research
needed to plan, implement, and evaluate con-
servation activities. Many practitioners and
communities, however, lack the resources to
hire trained social scientists to provide all, or
even some, of the social information they need.
We believe that conservation practitioners and
natural resources managers can benefit from
learning the process, and some basic methods
and tools, of social assessment and research.
They could also benefit, of course, from ad-
vice from trained social scientists, especially
at critical points in the process.

Only after at least some assessment and research
has been done - and then and only then - are
conservation practitioners in a position to plan
appropriate and feasible actions. Planning in-
volves matching resources with activities and
actors to make something happen - to elicit re-
actions that influence the factors that motivate
critical behaviors. The implementation stage of
the process involves actually expending re-
sources to carry out activities with actors.

Although planning and implementation are not
the main focus of this report, in Chapter VI
we give some examples to suggest how an under-
standing of the context and motivations of be-
haviors provided by assessment and research
can be used to design and implement activities
aimed at influencing those behaviors. Depend-
ing on which factors are key motivators of criti-
cal behaviors, different kinds of activities are
needed. Some general types of activities, each
of which is most appropriate for influencing one
or several of the factors that motivate behav-
ior, are discussed:

• influencing values, knowledge, and
  social norms through education,
  communication, and social marketing
  approaches

• influencing sociocultural factors
  through education, communication,
  and social marketing approaches.
  
• influencing options and skills through
  extension, technical assistance, and
  training
  
• influencing economic factors through
  enterprise development, markets, and
  incentives and disincentives
• influencing laws and policies through
• legislation and policy reform

Dispute resolution is also discussed in Chapter
VI, because when key actors differ widely in
their values, interests, and views about what
should be done, resolving disputes may be the
most appropriate and feasible thing to do, at
least as a first step.

There is a logical link between evaluation and
each of the other stages of the process of un-
derstanding and influencing behaviors in con-
servation - the assessment, planning, and
implementation stages. Chapter VII briefly
summarizes some of the voluminous literature
on evaluation, especially that most relevant to
understanding and influencing behaviors in
natural resources management. It discusses in-
tegrating evaluation in the process of under-
standing and influencing behaviors, as well as
issues of participation and hypothesis-testing
in evaluation.

We hope that the findings and conclusions of
the analytical "safari" reflected in this report
will be useful in helping the designers,
implementers, and managers of conservation
and natural resources management activities un-
derstand what motivates the decisions, actions,
and practices that affect the environment. We
hope they will then be able to identify appro-
priate, feasible, and effective activities - at lo-
cal, national, and international levels - for in-
fluencing those behaviors in order to promote
sustainable natural resources management.