Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls
for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social
sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social
sciences can provide unique and important contributions to society's understanding
of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice
and outcomes. There are 4 barriers-ideological, institutional, knowledge, and capacity-to
meaningful integration of the social sciences into conservation. We provide practical
guidance on overcoming these barriers to mainstream the social sciences in conservation
science, practice, and policy. Broadly, we recommend fostering knowledge on the scope
and contributions of the social sciences to conservation, including social scientists
from the inception of interdisciplinary research projects, incorporating social science
research and insights during all stages of conservation planning and implementation,
building social science capacity at all scales in conservation organizations and agencies,
and promoting engagement with the social sciences in and through global conservation
policy-influencing organizations. Conservation social scientists, too, need to be
willing to engage with natural science knowledge and to communicate insights and recommendations
clearly. We urge the conservation community to move beyond superficial engagement
with the conservation social sciences. A more inclusive and integrative conservation
science-one that includes the natural and social sciences-will enable more ecologically
effective and socially just conservation. Better collaboration among social scientists,
natural scientists, practitioners, and policy makers will facilitate a renewed and
more robust conservation. Mainstreaming the conservation social sciences will facilitate
the uptake of the full range of insights and contributions from these fields into
conservation policy and practice.