Rethinking 'win-win' conservation and development discourse, strategies and outcomes in the Peruvian Amazon and beyond

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How can we conserve the planet's diverse ecosystems while still meeting the needs of the rapidly growing human population? My doctoral work examined the implications of how organisations seek to reconcile these goals in the context of the Peruvian Amazon. Specifically, I examined 15 projects which used a combination of material incentives, protected area enforcement and community-based education and management to motivate farmers to conserve forest while improving their well-being. After spending a full day with 270 families living within these project areas and collecting 6.5 hours of in-depth quantitative and qualitative data per family, I found that all 15 projects were producing unintended outcomes that were counterproductive to their goals. Despite this finding, 36 interviews with project proponents and a review of 103 project materials showed that these projects were overwhelmingly portrayed as success stories. These stories served to reinforce the spread of similar conservation and development project models and assumptions at broader scales in Peru and internationally.The novel transdisciplinary approach of my doctoral work provided unique insight as to why particular project models manage to remain plausible and legitimate in theory despite producing contradictory outcomes in practice. As an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, I aim to explore two critical follow up questions: (1) How can these findings be used to actually influence policy and practice in Peru? (2) Which of my doctoral findings are potentially relevant in other contexts and thus could play an important role in shaping donor priorities and assumptions at a global scale?I aim to explore these two questions by: (1) developing and trialling innovative social learning methods to engage directly with project managers and donors in Peru to shape how they understand and implement joint conservation and development work, (2) disseminating my work through international networks by writing a monograph and two additional journal articles, and organising two symposia at major international conferences, and (3) interacting with a wide range of researchers and practitioners in an international context to understand the potential relevance of my work beyond the context of Peru to formulate an exciting three-year research agenda. These activities will expand the direct impact of my doctoral work both within Peru and beyond, and will provide a critical bridge from my doctoral work to my professional career path. The fellowship will have immediate impacts on my professional skills, network and intellectual thinking, as well as long-lasting impacts on the direction, scope and impact of my future research at the interface of global conservation and development theory, policy and practice.