João Neves

Toutes les menaces principales à la biodiversité—perte d'habitat, surexploitation, pollution et changement climatique—sont entraînées par le comportement humain. Ce document d'orientation présente la position du Groupe de travail sur le changement de comportement de la CEC de l'IUCN SSC. Le changement de comportement est central, non périphérique, à la conservation. Il définit le changement de comportement comme le processus par lequel les actions humaines évoluent pour produire des résultats plus souhaitables pour la nature. Il présente des cadres pour les échelles individuelle, collective, institutionnelle et systémique, souligne les principes éthiques, et guide l'intégration des considérations comportementales dans les initiatives de conservation. Développé par 15 experts, ce document soutient les Membres de l'IUCN dans l'ancrage du changement de comportement dans la preuve et la pratique éthique.

Todas as principais ameaças à biodiversidade—perda de habitat, sobreexploração, poluição e alterações climáticas—são impulsionadas pelo comportamento humano. Este documento de orientação apresenta a posição da Força de Trabalho de Mudança de Comportamento da IUCN SSC CEC. A mudança de comportamento é central, não periférica, à conservação. Define mudança de comportamento como o processo pelo qual as ações humanas se alteram para produzir resultados mais desejáveis para a natureza. Apresenta frameworks para escalas individual, coletiva, institucional e sistémica, enfatiza princípios éticos, e orienta a integração de considerações comportamentais em iniciativas de conservação. Desenvolvido por 15 especialistas, este documento apoia os Membros da IUCN no enraizamento da mudança de comportamento em evidência e prática ética.

Todas las amenazas principales a la biodiversidad—pérdida de hábitat, sobreexplotación, contaminación y cambio climático—son impulsadas por el comportamiento humano. Este documento de orientación presenta la posición de la Fuerza de Tarea de Cambio de Comportamiento de la IUCN SSC CEC sobre el cambio de comportamiento en la conservación de la biodiversidad. El cambio de comportamiento es central, no periférico, a la conservación. Define cambio de comportamiento como el proceso mediante el cual las acciones humanas cambian para producir resultados más deseables para la naturaleza. Presenta marcos para escalas individual, colectiva, institucional y sistémica, enfatiza principios éticos, y orienta la integración de consideraciones conductuales en iniciativas de conservación. Desarrollado por 15 expertos, este documento apoya a los Miembros de la IUCN en fundamentar el cambio de comportamiento en evidencia y práctica ética.

All major biodiversity threats—habitat loss, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change—are driven by human behaviour. This guidance paper presents the IUCN SSC CEC Behaviour Change Task Force's position on behaviour change in biodiversity conservation. Behaviour change is central, not peripheral, to conservation. The paper defines behaviour change as the process by which human actions shift to produce more desirable outcomes for nature. It presents frameworks for individual, collective, institutional, and systemic scales, emphasises ethical principles, and guides integrating behavioural considerations into conservation initiatives. Developed by 15 experts, this paper supports IUCN Members in grounding behaviour change in evidence and ethical practice.

Participants in environmental education programmes can have different preexisting attitudes and experiences that could influence the educational outcomes. The present study focuses on zoo education and its goal of connecting people to nature. It analyses the effect of educational programmes on participants' connection to nature, considering their preexisting (initial) connection to nature. Twenty zoos collected data from programme participants using questionnaires before and after their programmes. Using the Illustrated Inclusion of Nature in Self scale, participants were categorized as low, medium and high connected to nature. The evaluation data was then analysed based on the demographics of the participants (age, gender, zoo visit frequency) and the programme components (programme duration, animal contact, topic of conservation). The results indicated that the programmes had a stronger effect on connection to nature among low‐ and medium‐connected participants than among those with high initial connection to nature. Further, the influence of demographic characteristics and programme components was more pronounced for low‐ and medium‐connected participants. Low‐ and medium‐connected participants showed greater increases when they directly encountered animals, heard about conservation or participated in long programmes. Gender played a role insofar as women with a low connection to nature experienced a stronger increase in their connection to nature than low‐connected men. Infrequent zoo visitors benefited less from educational programmes. In contrast, these factors had little effect on the outcomes for participants who had a high connection to nature from the beginning. Since the initial values correlated with the extent to which people's connection to nature changed, we recommend keeping them in mind when conducting research or evaluations. This applies not only to people's connection to nature; initial values in general could help explain results that practitioners and researchers might encounter. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Zoological parks with conservation missions must reconcile commercial sustainability with conservation goals within hybrid organizational structures, making employees’ nature connectedness and conservation meaning-making potentially important for achieving their dual mandate. This exploratory single-case study examines links between nature connectedness and conservation representations among employees of a marine-focused zoological park that integrates commercial operations with ex-situ conservation, research, and environmental education. A total of 104 workers completed free word association tasks on “conservation,” a reduced New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale, and multidimensional measures of nature connectedness. Reliability analysis supported the use of a refined, 5-item NEP subscale for exploratory purposes. Cluster analysis identified three organizational profiles – Technical Specialists, Cross-functional Workers, and Peripheral Workers – with distinct combinations of conservation expertise, organizational alignment, and nature connectivity. Profiles differed significantly in Personal–Nature Identity and time spent in nature outside work, with Technical Specialists showing unexpectedly lower identity connection and Peripheral Workers reporting the highest nature engagement and technical specificity in their conservation representations. NEP scores, however, did not differ between profiles, and no mediation effects emerged between profiles and environmental attitudes through nature connectedness, aligning with emerging evidence of value–action gaps in complex organizational contexts. These findings suggest that, in hybrid environmental organizations, shared environmental values may coexist with heterogeneous nature connectivity patterns, indicating that organizational challenges may stem less from value conflicts than from structural and representational factors that shape how staff translate conservation commitments into practice.

Background: Efforts to stem the species extinction crisis have been hampered by lack of funding. While public investment is key, private donations play an important role in wildlife conservation. Objective: This study investigated whether persuasion techniques in bird show scripts could increase pro-conservation behavior at Zoomarine Algarve. Methods: An initial exploratory study compared control and modified tropical bird show scripts using three persuasion strategies (“identifiable victim”, “anchoring effect”, and “bandwagon effect”), measured by conservation bracelet sales. The main study then focused on the “identifiable victim” effect, involving 116 sampling days in two conditions during summer 2023, with 148,545 visitors. Results: The exploratory study showed the modified script unexpectedly decreased sales. The main study found no significant difference in bracelet sales between conditions ( Z = -.60, p = .55). Conclusions: This research suggests complexities of applying persuasion techniques in field experiments and underscores the need for proper evaluation for informed decisions. The study provides insights into communication barriers and factors influencing conservation engagement in zoos, underlining the importance of communicating null results for advancing scientific understanding.

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) is the most critically endangered sea turtle species, with a distribution primarily restricted to the Gulf of Mexico. Its occurrence along the Iberian Peninsula is exceedingly rare. This study describes the postmortem findings of a juvenile L. kempii rescued off the Portuguese coast in 2024, which died after 11 days in rehabilitation despite intensive supportive care. Necropsy revealed severe, diffuse pneumonia. Histopathological examination showed interstitial inflammation and branching septate hyphae, while fungal culture and DNA sequencing confirmed the presence of Beauveria bassiana. Mycotic diseases in reptiles are often underrecognised but can lead to significant morbidity and mortality, particularly in immunocompromised or stressed individuals such as stranded marine turtles. This rare occurrence of a L. kempii on the Portuguese coast provides important insights into the species’ dispersal patterns and underlines the potential conservation implications of opportunistic fungal infections in endangered species.