Behavior change is a powerful but underused tool in wildlife conservation. While widely applied in public health and development, its potential to tackle harmful behaviors to wildlife—such as retaliatory killings, consumption of illegal wildlife products, and unsustainable tourism—has only recently been gaining traction. Recognizing this, the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank through the Global Wildlife Program (GWP) have prioritized behavior change as a key strategy to address the root causes of wildlife loss.
Social and behavior change is crucial for biodiversity conservation as it addresses the actions and choices of people, which drive most threats to wild species. Behavior change involves altering human actions by targeting a specific audience and leveraging insights into context and timing —either to discourage harmful behaviors or promote desirable ones. The well-established field of behavioral science encompasses a range of strategies, frameworks, theories, and models.
There is increasing interest in behavior change as wildlife management practitioners recognize its potential to address detrimental behaviors that jeopardize wildlife conservation. Examples include communities living in landscapes with wildlife that engage in retaliatory killing of problem-causing wildlife, those who buy illegal wildlife products in distant cities, and tourists involved in unsustainable tourism practices that impact negatively on wildlife and habitats.
The GWP Behavior Change Guidance Note Series has been developed with TRAFFIC to assist governments, project implementers, and wildlife management practitioners to identify practical opportunities to bring behavior change into their work.
The guidance notes cover:
- 1. Entry Points for Behavior Change: guidance on how to identify opportunities to embed behavior change approaches across a) human-wildlife conflict and coexistence; b) illegal, unsafe and unsustainable wildlife trade; and c) nature-based tourism.
- 2. Developing a Behavior Change Strategy: a three-step pathway to design a behavior change strategy and promote behaviorally informed interventions to address wildlife conservation challenges.
- 3. Conducting Social Research: practical guidance and case studies on how to conduct and use social research.
- 4. Creating Impactful Messages: guidance and examples on how to craft effective messages to support behavior change in wildlife conservation.
Last Updated: Oct 07, 2025
