Charismatic species and beyond:how cultural schemas and organisational routines shape conservation

It has long been suggested that charismatic species attract a disproportionate amount of attention and resources in international conservation. This paper follows up on this observation to investigate how cultural schemas and organisational routines shape resource allocation in conservation more broadly. Based on 44 in-depth interviews with programme managers in international conservation NGOs and in zoos with conservation programmes, we argue that the way units of intervention are institutionalised in conservation work shapes the allocation of resources in ways that are not directly based on conservation science. In addition to the role of species, and charismatic species in particular, we examine the role of focus countries  political boundaries shape the conditions under which NGOs can do their work and they shape NGOs’ work via the priorities of institutional donors. We also discuss the role of landscape types, and competition among landscape types, and of solution-based programming.