This article offers a succinct introduction to the debate surrounding conservation and human wellbeing. The authors discuss the lack of information about the social impacts of conservation, especially accounts of displacement from protected areas as well as the lack of data about ecological impacts of community-led conservation programs.

An excerpt from the last paragraph captures the message of the article well: “The ecologies and social impacts of coexistence are most important because this is an issue that extends far beyond the boundaries of protected areas. The ultimate challenge facing conservationists today is not only to reconcile errors of the past but also to determine how to shape human interactions with nature in landscapes of which people are a part” (page 251).