Better together: Building an engaged conservation paleobiology science for the future

Abstract

Abstract Making decisions about natural resource conservation is often difficult because of a lack of longer‐term data, which are needed to provide a frame of reference for identifying and choosing appropriate responses to threats impacting species, ecosystems, and the benefits they provide to people. Despite the promise the field of conservation paleobiology holds for using geohistorical data and insights to provide this longer‐term perspective, examples of successful implementation are uncommon. Over the past decade, many conservation biology researchers and practitioners have turned to knowledge co‐production to overcome this same challenge. Co‐production prioritizes collaboration between academic and non‐academic partners to produce actionable knowledge that better aligns with conservation practitioners' needs and concerns. We argue that the conservation paleobiology community must similarly build collective competence to engage more effectively in shared “learning spaces” where actionable knowledge is co‐produced. We draw from our experiences with the Historical Oyster Body Size project and lessons learned from other fields to identify key attributes of actionable geohistorical knowledge and the meaningful co‐production processes that produced it. Familiarity with these concepts will benefit conservation paleobiologists and all researchers who aspire to help develop longer‐lasting, defensible and more equitable solutions to complex conservation problems presented by a changing world.

Keywords

• actionable science
• community of practice
• conservation paleobiology
• co‐production
• engagement
• knowledge‐action gap