| Increasing participation in conservation programs is viewed as necessary in today's world; however, more knowledge is needed regarding how to engage communities. This dissertation aims to deconstruct participation by exploring community-level social capital, gender differences, and their potential influence on attitudes and participation in conservation programs. Instead of solely evaluating current participation and participants in conservation programs, this study employs the conceptualization of social capital (networks, trust, and norms) to examine both conservation and non-conservation related participation in four communities along the northern coast of Bahia, Brazil. The dissertation is organized into three chapters, with the first presenting five considerations for improving our understanding, application, and assessment of participation in conservation. I propose that the conceptualization of participation held by conservation scholars and practitioners needs to mirror already-established ideals of participation at the community level, bringing clarity and specificity to participation in theory and practice, and addressing issues of space and context. The second chapter examines the influence of social capital and conservation attitudes on participation in sea turtle conservation in northeast Brazil by employing confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings suggest that social capital could be just as influential as conservation attitudes when working to engage communities in conservation. The third chapter uses a mixed methods approach to explore gender differences in conservation participation by investigating gender differences in access, attitudes and agency in participation. Questionnaires and focus groups indicate greater gender differences in access and agency than attitudes toward sea turtle conservation. In addition, my findings provide new information on how people want to participate based on motivations and activities that better match their needs, responsibilities, interests and desired benefits. Social capital provides a framework for understanding how the structural and cognitive aspects of participation interact, providing a more complete picture of community dynamics and individual interests. By deconstructing non-conservation related participation at the community level to understand how and why people participate, as well as the underlying influences, this research can be used to better the design and target of conservation programs resulting in greater and more meaningful participation by a more diverse representation of the community. |
