Transitions to transformative conservation in Idaho’s Redband Trout management

Past conservation practices have faced challenges in creating solutions to the impacts of socio-ecological change in part due to management practices that consider humans and nature as separate. Scholars suggest a shift to transformative conservation to address environmental and social injustices. However, this shift is difficult because conservation practitioners may conceptualize the socio-ecological system as separating humans and nature, which may cause conflict or barriers to developing new epistemologies and relationships with the environment. Using a case study of Redband Trout ecosystems in Idaho, we examine how conservation practitioners conceptualize connections between humans and the environment and how worldviews translate into conservation practice. We found that scientists and practitioners conceptualized Redband Trout ecosystems through a conservation lens, where humans are viewed as negatively impacting the ecosystem. We offer insights into how a shift to transformative conservation could occur with attention to collaborative conservation and pluralistic science.