Long-distance friendships can provide conservation benefits

PULLMAN, Wash. – While sustaining friendships from afar can be challenging, they may offer unexpected benefits for environmental conservation.

A Washington State University-led study, recently published in Conservation Letters, found that these social ties can positively influence community-based conservation.  While the study focused on 28 fishing villages in northern Tanzania, it has potential broader implications for global conservation efforts.

“Our findings challenge the notion that external connections undermine conservation,” said Kristopher Smith, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health. “We show that these relationships can also foster trust and cooperation, essential for managing shared natural resources.”

The research reveals that individuals with more friends in neighboring communities are significantly more likely to participate in activities aimed at sustainable fisheries management. Relative to a person with no long-distance friends, having even just one friend in another village led to a 15% increase in conservation activities such as beach cleanups, reporting illegal fishing practices and educating others about sustainable resource management.

The researchers attribute this effect to the unique support long-distance friends provide, such as loans to buy fishing equipment, which are harder to obtain locally. This mutual reliance fosters interdependence, creating incentives for both parties to protect shared resources.

For their analysis, Smith and colleagues conducted interviews with 1,317 participants in Tanzania’s Tanga region. They used Bayesian statistical models to examine how the number of long-distance relationships and levels of trust between people in different communities influenced participation in Beach Management Unit activities. These locally governed organizations composed of fishers and other stakeholders oversee fisheries management—a task that requires collaboration across villages due to the shared nature of fishery resources.

The researchers found that long-distance friendships drive participation in the unit activities in two ways. First, individuals with more long-distance friends were directly more engaged in conservation actions. Second, these relationships helped build trust between communities, further encouraging cooperation across boundaries. Participants with high levels of trust in other communities were significantly more likely to engage in fisheries management activities compared to those who relied solely on relationships in their home communities. Surprisingly, trust in local community members had little to no effect on participation, suggesting the unique role of cross-community ties in promoting collective action.

While the study highlights the benefits of long-distance friendships, it also acknowledges their potential downsides. Previous research has shown that such ties can lead to “leakage,” where friends collaborate to bypass conservation rules. For instance, they might share information about patrol schedules, enabling illegal activities.

“What’s unique about our findings is that we’re showing both sides of the coin,” Smith said. “While these relationships can lead to rule-breaking, they also have significant potential to drive conservation.”

The study’s findings are already being applied by local organizations like the Mwambao Coastal Community Network, a collaborator in the study. This Tanzanian non-governmental organization works with fishery communities to build cross-village relationships through initiatives like periodic fishery closures and reopening events. These activities help demonstrate the tangible benefits of conservation and foster connections between communities.

“This research validates what organizations like Mwambao are already doing,” Smith said. “By providing evidence that building long-distance relationships has added benefits, this research can potentially guide large-scale initiatives of organizations like our collaborator Mwambao.”Moving forward, the research team plans to explore the dynamics of long-distance relationships in other natural resource contexts, such as forestry and efforts to reduce carbon emissions. They want to know more about when long-distance relationships lead to leakage vs effective conservation.

Ultimately, the findings could have broad implications for global conservation efforts, particularly as governments and organizations grapple with challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss. Conservation policies that encourage inter-community relationships, such as exchange programs or joint training sessions, could leverage the benefits of long-distance trust to scale sustainable practices.

 “Long-distance relationships have long been part of how people manage resource access,” said Anne Pisor, a co-author on the study and assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State University. “By working with these relationships, organizations can build on something tried and true when addressing a number of 21^st century problems.”