Staying in the Room: Stories of Power and Participation in Conservation

This booklet brings together a set of real-world case studies, each exploring how participatory processes unfold in conservation settings — and how power is entangled in every step. Written by those directly involved in or observing these processes, these stories come from landscapes as varied as the Andes, the Pyrenees, the Scottish moors, and the forests of Mexico. They describe efforts to bring together communities, governments, scientists, and civil society actors to co-create responses to complex environmental challenges. But more than technical achievements or policy innovations, these stories highlight the relational, emotional, and political dimensions of participation. They show that trust takes time. That silence and absence can be forms of power. That listening well matters. And that small shifts — a new question, a reframed agenda, a handwritten agreement — can carry theseeds of transformative change. These narratives were written in the context of the PowerBiodiv project, an initiative aimed at exploring how participatory biodiversity governance can be made more just and inclusive by attending explicitly to power. If you wish to learn more about the power framework and its different dimensions (visible, hidden, invisible and systemic power; power to, power with, power within, power for; spaces and level of power), we invite you to consult the accompanying handbook and visual tools developed as part of the same project. We hope these stories invite you not only to reflect, but to stay in the room — and keep working toward more power aware and grounded forms of conservation.