Pioneering behavioral science for conservation
Conservation depends on the ability of nature-dependent communities to shape their own futures. Yet too often, environmental solutions are designed without fully understanding the people whose decisions, relationships, and daily actions determine whether those solutions succeed.
Rare is helping shape a new generation of community-led conservation. By applying behavioral and social science, technology, and practical tools, we help communities design solutions that work for people and nature while strengthening local leadership and decision-making. Through this work, Rare is advancing behavior-centered conservation and helping transform conservation practice worldwide.
Impact at scale
Rare’s behavioral science and innovation work is helping communities adopt sustainable practices, strengthen conservation leadership, and scale solutions worldwide.
Rare’s work is helping millions of fishers, farmers, and community leaders adopt practices that restore ecosystems while strengthening food security and livelihoods.
Rare has trained conservation practitioners in behavior-centered design, helping scale people-centered conservation solutions worldwide.
Through practitioner trainings, research, and a global behavioral science platform, Rare is helping conservation leaders around the world apply behavioral science to real-world environmental challenges.
How Rare designs community-led solutions that stick
Rare works alongside communities to understand how people make decisions and what motivates change. Together, we identify barriers, uncover opportunities, and co-design solutions that reflect local contexts, needs, and priorities.
Drawing on behavioral and social science, technology, and innovation, we help make solutions practical, adoptable, and lasting. We test, refine, and adapt approaches based on evidence and community feedback, helping ensure they work in real-world settings.
Rare also invests in the people and institutions needed to sustain and scale change. Through research, practitioner training, and open-access tools, we equip communities, governments, NGOs, and other partners with the knowledge and resources to apply behavior-centered approaches in their own work.
By sharing what works and helping others put it into practice, Rare is advancing community-led conservation and shaping the future of conservation practice worldwide.
Rare pioneers the use of behavioral science in conservation to understand how people make decisions and what motivates change. Through the Center for Behavior & the Environment, we translate research into practical tools that help conservation programs shift norms, strengthen collective action, and support sustainable practices.
Rare’s Entertainment Lab partners with writers, producers, and storytellers to bring climate and conservation narratives to global audiences. By shifting cultural narratives, the Lab helps inspire action and normalize solutions that protect nature.
Rare designs and tests new approaches that help communities protect ecosystems while strengthening livelihoods. Promising solutions are piloted, refined, and replicated across regions so they can be adopted by governments, NGOs, and communities around the world.
Where we work
Rare works in the world’s most biodiverse and climate-vulnerable geographies, helping identify, test, and scale approaches that strengthen community-led conservation.
Africa
In East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean, Rare develops and applies behavioral tools, pilots new approaches, and supports scaling pathways that strengthen community-led conservation.
Asia Pacific
Across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Rare helps advance fisheries management and conservation innovation to support thriving coastal communities.
Latin America
In Central America & the Caribbean, Rare supports programs that strengthen food systems, protect biodiversity, and strengthen climate resilience across coastal and agricultural landscapes.
The Behavior Beat
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Advisory Board
Rare’s behavioral science and innovation work is guided by leading experts in behavioral science, conservation, communications, and social research.
Our advisory board brings together global leaders from academia, media, and environmental practice who help guide the development and application of behavioral insights in conservation.
Our Partners
Rare’s work is made possible by the support of research institutions, storytellers, funders, and partners around the world. Together, we are developing solutions that help communities protect nature and build a more resilient future. Selected partners include:
Contact Us
For more information about Rare’s behavioral science and innovation work, please contact us at behavior@rare.org