Living with Wildlife: How Relational Values and Care Ethics Shape Conservation Action

Relational values, care, and stewardship actions fundamentally shape human-wildlife coexistence, yet there is a gap between understanding and explicitly incorporating these approaches in conservation practice. In this study, we co-produce a relational framework with various research partners, including Indigenous communities, to demonstrate how relational values and care can be more effectively understood and applied through conservation policy/strategy. This study adopts a relational approach, acknowledging the diverse values, perceptions, and interactions that shape coexistence. Using a transdisciplinary methodology, the study examines human-wildlife coexistence in two contrasting social-ecological systems in South Africa: the Garden Route and the Kalahari. We engage local actors as research partners and develop participatory workshops, collaborative timelines, and focus group discussions to identify the relational values underpinning coexistence, explicitly focusing on the dimensions of care, knowledge, and agency associated with stewardship actions. Distinct stewardship positions emerged, reflecting different visions of human-wildlife interactions and conservation. Indigenous research partners notably highlighted transformative stewardship, promoting an inclusive worldview that integrates humans and wildlife through mutual respect and cultural recognition. Conversely, other research partners demonstrated varied stewardship positions ranging from adaptive to sustainability-focused action.The findings underscore the need to explicitly incorporate relational values and care dimensions into conservation strategies, highlighting their potential to enhance legitimacy, credibility, and effectiveness in addressing social-ecological complexity. This relational framework supports practical, inclusive, and context-sensitive conservation actions that consider and leverage the diversity of human-nature relationships.