Patterning conservation flows: How formal and informal networks shape transnational conservation practice

Conservation Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are crucial actors in global conservation governance.
They shape resource flows, establish cross-sector and cross-scale networks, and influence conservation discourses
and practices. While research on conservation NGOs is growing, less attention has been paid to how conservation
NGOs structure their networks. In this article, we interrogate the interpersonal social relationships that underpin the
organisational dynamics of conservation NGOs engaged in transnational activities. Drawing on 45 semi-structured
interviews with conservation professionals at NGOs based in Cambridge (UK), Bangkok (Thailand), and Vientiane
(Lao PDR), we sketch two parallel and interacting dimensions: (a) the bureaucratic and institutional infrastructures
that condition conservation flows and actor interactions; and (b) the interpersonal social relationships that pattern
conservation flows between distant places and actors. We illustrate how such relationships are important for
managing activities, responding to unexpected and unforeseen events, capitalising on funding opportunities by
quickly mobilising an existing network, integrating new actors into project activities, enhancing cross-sector
dialogues to mainstream biodiversity conservation, and accessing and influencing funders. Social relationships
serve a crucial function due to the uncertain conditions in which conservation NGOs operate. Our results point to
an important dimension of exclusion in transnational conservation networks.