Including the Rogue Primate: The Perils and Promise of Integrating Natural and Social Systems in Conservation‪.‬

Abstract This article discusses possible constraints that can exist when integrating natural and social systems in the name of conservation. There is a recognition that the mandate of conservation has expanded in order to respond to increasingly complex conservation issues. Current adaptive management programs that are based on an approach that integrates natural and social systems are discussed. Concerns are raised that in these attempts to create broader-based mandates for conservation initiatives there is the danger that the analytical ability to identify the root causes of conservation failure will be lost. Instead, these integrative approaches focus on strategizing with "adaptive" agents in a unified system. In their ambitiousness, these integrative systems approaches to conservation may naturalize the very forces that cause conservation failure. The paper concludes with a discussion of embedded conservation related to the ideas of naturalist John Livingston.