![\"Karen](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2022\/08\/20160920_EES_KarenAllen_003.jpg\")
Karen Allen<\/p><\/div>\n
Their research found key insights into the importance of connections between grassroots organizations working toward a common goal \u2013 as well as the difficulty of making those connections across a fragmented landscape.<\/p>\n
During the summers of 2018 and 2019, Karen Allen<\/a>, an assistant professor of sustainability science and anthropology, and students Sophia Pessagno \u201919 and Sarah McLean \u201920 researched how local conservation organizations can join forces to address issues on a broader scale. Their findings are summed up in \u201cConnecting Communities, Connecting Environments: The Role of Social Capital in Landscape-Scale Conservatism,\u201d which has been accepted for publication in the journal Society & Natural Resources<\/a>. The article was published online<\/a> on June 7 but has not yet appeared in the journal\u2019s print edition.<\/p>\n \u201cLandscape-level conservation initiatives typically need to connect a diverse group of stakeholders to achieve conservation goals,\u201d states the article\u2019s abstract. \u201cThis requires an understanding of the role that social capital plays in leveraging conservation across scales.\u201d<\/p>\n The landscape in question was the Bellbird Biological Corridor<\/a> (Corredor Biol\u00f3gico P\u00e1jaro Campana, or CBPC), 667 square kilometers on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, established in 2009. From Monteverde, which contains the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve<\/a>, the corridor stretches southwest along the Gulf of Nicoya.<\/p>\n Allen began researching the region as graduate student, and she has brought her Furman students back regularly for summer research projects.<\/p>\n Sophia Pessagno \u201919 during her summer 2018 research trip to Costa Rica<\/p><\/div>\n Connections are critical in the CBPC, Allen said \u2013 not just among organizations, but between different local areas. The CBPC was envisioned\u00a0 to protect a vulnerable species, the three-wattled bellbird, whose habitat encompasses several fragments of land \u2013 many of which are privately owned \u2013 across that region of Costa Rica, she said.<\/p>\n During a summer research project in Costa Rica in 2018, her student Pessagno started interviewing some of the organizations in the corridor, asking how \u2013 or if \u2013 they were working together and joining forces to meet the CBPC\u2019s original goals. The sustainability science major saw her research as an extension of the principles she had been learning on campus.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I saw what Dr. Allen was working on, it brought human beings into the picture, which was very much what my classes taught: We are part of this system,\u201d she said. \u201cI really loved that I was able to connect people and communities and realize how the whole came together.\u201d<\/p>\n Although much has been accomplished in the CBPC, the grassroots organizations were not connecting well, Pessagno found. For example, a large organization in Monteverde that wanted to plant trees might have difficulty connecting with the small, isolated areas elsewhere in the corridor where trees were needed. Pessagno\u2019s thesis hypothesized that there was a geographical disconnect at work.<\/p>\n Sarah McLean \u201920 (right) and Eileen Joseph \u201920 during a summer 2019 research trip to Costa Rica<\/p><\/div>\n A social network analysis, using survey data from the organizations to map our their connections, could prove that hypothesis. In summer 2019, another sustainability sciences major, Sarah McLean, took on that task.<\/p>\n \u201cThe survey asked people who they\u2019re working with, how they\u2019re working with them, why they\u2019re working with them, and how strong that connection is,\u201d said Allen.<\/p>\n McLean was then able to translate that survey data using software to mathematically measure the networks\u2019 weaknesses and strengths.<\/p>\n \u201cQuantification of human relationships is inherently difficult, but that’s exactly what social network analysis attempts to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI was surprised at how well my social network analysis revealed important patterns that are affecting conservation outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n The data showed \u201ca sparse yet highly centralized network that isolates key actors from decision-making and places an extensive financial and resource burden on the central institutions,\u201d concluded the article. The strongest connections found in the Monteverde region, while organizations in outlying areas to the south were less well connected. The fact that organizations tended to be \u201cplugged into Monteverde\u201d rather than connected laterally with each other was \u201cnot terribly surprising,\u201d the article stated, given the prominence of Monteverde among tourists and conservationists.<\/p>\n A strengthened network of geographically dispersed key stakeholders can help bridge local conservation initiatives, concluded the article\u2019s authors, who hope that their work will encourage further research toward that goal.<\/p>\n Thesis work gave McLean and Pessagno practical experience in project ownership \u2013 taking a project from concept through data to synthesis \u2013 which will help them in any pursuit, said Allen.<\/p>\n \u201cOften, when I\u2019m asked to write reference letters, I can say, \u2018Hey, they did our thesis program. They\u2019re ready to work in any field,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n It definitely helped McLean in her field, the alum said. She has applied what she learned in Costa Rica about involving local communities in conservation efforts as a deputy project manager for Arizona-based environmental consulting agency Galileo Project LLC<\/a>. McLean\u2019s work revolves around the National Environmental Policy Act<\/a> (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to communicate with the public about the potential environmental effects of their proposed actions.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to both my research and NEPA, participation of the public and local communities is critical to environmental work and conservation,\u201d McLean said, \u201cand I have seen those processes play out in different and interesting ways because of these experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Pessagno said that studying the CBPC helped her find her career path as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI realized that I fell in love with getting people connected to other people and the resources they needed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\u2018We are part of this system\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Sophia](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2022\/08\/pessagno.jpg\")
Mapping the networks<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2022\/08\/sarah-mclean-bridge-crop.jpg\")
The work continues<\/strong><\/h3>\n