COVID-19 pandemic as a learning path for grounding conservation policies in science

COVID-19 pandemic brought to light examples of science denial and politicization while triggering the engagement of scientists in producing information to help policymakers. The pandemic is thus an opportunity to reflect on crucial issues: What conditions facilitate science politicization and politics scientization? What can be done to avoid these dangers and effectively ground policies in science? These issues are particularly relevant for conservation science and practice, as they encompass complex problems with multifaceted consequences and conflicts of values and interests and are thus prone to science politicization and politics scientization. We propose that grounding policymaking in science requires recognizing that: (1) science is not value-free and should be immersed in a broader process that includes conflict mediation to agree on goals; (2) science-policy partnerships should function as transdisciplinary processes; and (3) changing scientific policies and training is vital to break the vicious cycle that maintains science disconnected from society.