Which knowledge matters? Decision-making in conservation and development initiatives

In regions where local livelihood needs intersect with international conservation priorities, finding ways to safeguard biological diversity while promoting human well-being is essential. Beyond debates on different approaches, the literature highlights critical research gaps regarding governance processes in conservation and development initiatives. This study examines how participation of local actors and inclusion of different knowledges shape decision-making in such initiatives. We introduce a novel analytical lens that combines three complementary frameworks: participation, knowledge sources (local, scientific, and practitioner), and knowledge types (systems, target, and transformation knowledge). By applying this lens to four conservation and development initiatives in Madagascar, we trace how participation and knowledge inclusion evolved over time. Our results show that local participation and the inclusion of diverse knowledge sources generally increased throughout the initiatives’ trajectories. However, participation often remained consultative, creating a risk of extracting local knowledge without granting genuine influence over decisions. The involvement of local actors and the combination of multiple knowledge sources largely depended on deliberate choices by project managers and funders, highlighting both power asymmetries and the agency of those leading these interventions. Analysis through the lens of knowledge types further revealed that insufficient integration of systems, target, and transformation knowledge resulted in significant setbacks in the initiatives’ trajectories, underscoring the importance of intentional knowledge integration in decision-making. Taken together, these findings highlight the central role of knowledge co-production in the design and implementation of conservation and development initiatives. Facilitating iterative co-production processes that explicitly address power relations, engage plural worldviews, and integrate systems, target, and transformation knowledge offers a promising pathway to strengthen the governance of such initiatives. These insights provide practical guidance for informing ongoing and future conservation and development actions.