Conservation is often framed as a scientific or technical challenge — a matter of policies, protected areas and enforcement. But that lens has led conservation astray. Around the world, biodiversity continues to decline. Communities are too often displaced in the name of conservation. And conservation efforts sometimes fail because they ignore what matters most to the people who live closest to the land, including meaning, memory, and relationship.

It’s time to change course. If we want conservation to succeed — not just in halting species loss, but in building a sustainable, just future — we must place cultural and spiritual connections at its core.

That’s the central argument of our newly published paper in Community Development, co-created by more than 20 conservationists, Indigenous leaders, researchers and community practitioners across five continents who generously shared their experiences, insights and lived wisdom. Together, we developed a thematic model that demonstrates how community well-being, cultural identity, and biodiversity protection are not separate goals — they are mutually reinforcing.

Drawing from case studies in Tajikistan, Belize, South Africa, India, Indonesia, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we found that conservation thrives when it honors local traditions, respects spiritual relationships to species and land, and empowers women and other historically marginalized voices. These aren’t just nice-to-haves — they are central to success.

In the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, herding communities once retaliated against snow leopards that preyed on livestock. But by reviving spiritual reverence for these majestic cats — seen as sacred protectors of the mountains — community members began capturing and releasing them instead.

In western India, a spiritual leader’s comparison of whale sharks to daughters returning home to give birth reshaped community sentiment — and behavior — almost overnight.

And in Belize, black howler monkeys known locally as “baboons” have become a cultural keystone species, anchoring both ecological protection and women-led community tourism initiatives.

See related: How cultural and religious beliefs combine for snow leopard conservation

These are not isolated anecdotes. They point to a deeper truth: people protect what they love, and they love what they feel connected to. Conservation rooted in spiritual and cultural connection fosters that sense of belonging and responsibility. It becomes not an external imposition, but an internal commitment.

Unfortunately, historically dominant conservation models have too often stripped away this sense of connection. By prioritizing exclusionary protected areas, top-down management, and a prioritization on purely economic valuation of resources, they have displaced Indigenous communities, undermined traditional knowledge systems, and weakened the very relationships that sustain biodiversity.

The model we developed together offers a path forward — one rooted in real-world community leadership and shared understanding across cultures and disciplines. The five pillars of that model — cultural keystone species, sustainable livelihoods, community ownership (especially women’s leadership), ancestral ties, and spiritual meaning — provide a road map for more just, inclusive and effective conservation. This isn’t about replacing science. It’s about integrating it with other ways of knowing.

We believe this approach is urgently needed — not just to protect species, but to restore relationships between people and land, knowledge and power, past and future. It’s time for conservation to move beyond saving animals and lands from people and toward saving animals and lands with people.

The next phase of conservation must be rooted in reciprocity. That means listening more, sharing power, and valuing the stories, beliefs and wisdom already alive in communities. Only then can we create conservation that truly sustains life — both human and wild — for generations to come.

While this commentary reflects the views of the authors, the model it draws upon was shaped through many voices — case study authors, roundtable participants, and conservation leaders who brought their cultural and spiritual perspectives to bear on what conservation can and should be.

This work is also contributing to a broader academic and policy conversation. The themes and insights developed through these global case studies served as the foundation for a forthcoming chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services.

That volume, edited by leaders in the field, explores how cultural and spiritual relationships with nature influence conservation, community well-being, and environmental decision-making. Our contribution builds on the same core premise: conservation is most effective — and most just — when it honors the deep, place-based connections between people and the natural world.

Beth Allgood is the founder of the OneNature Institute; John Waugh is a policy adviser and practitioner with more than 40 years of experience working at the intersection of community development and conservation, including global biodiversity policy and local implementation; Craig Talmage is a faculty member at Hobart & William Smith Colleges and co-developer of the thematic model discussed in this commentary. All three are co-authors of “The role of community spiritual and cultural connections in wildlife conservation.”

Banner image: Snow leopard approaching camera trap in Kyrgyzstan. Photo courtesy of Panthera-SAEF-NAS-UW.

Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: Celebrated author Robert Macfarlane argues that rivers have been given legal rights because they’re alive, listen here:

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How cultural and religious beliefs combine for snow leopard conservation (commentary)

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Guardians of the sacred: Ethiopian Orthodox monks on spiritual forest conservation

Citation:

Allgood, B., Talmage, C., Ashdown, B. K., Stillitano, C., Kumari, I., Coxe, S., … Chaudhary, R. G. (2025). The role of community spiritual and cultural connections in wildlife conservation: A thematic model of social justice and sustainability from cases across the world. Community Development, 1-31. doi:10.1080/15575330.2025.2483791