Synthesizing beaver coexistence messaging with the capability, opportunity, and motivation behavior model

Overview

This study examined how conservation practitioners communicate with private landowners about beaver coexistence in Oregon, analyzing their approaches through the capability, opportunity, and motivation behavior (COM-B) model. In the western United States, practitioners are working to restore beaver habitat and promote nonlethal mitigation of beaver-related damage to crops and infrastructure. Despite the importance of effective communication in promoting coexistence, conservation messaging often lacks explicit connections to behavior change theories. The research explored whether the COM-B model could be applied retrospectively to understand and synthesize the complex communication strategies already being used by practitioners in real-world coexistence contexts.

Methods and approach

The study employed 23 semistructured interviews with conservation practitioners working on beaver coexistence issues with private landowners in Oregon. The interviews were designed to examine the communication approaches practitioners used in their work. Although the interview protocol was not originally designed to specifically target the COM-B model components, the researchers applied the COM-B framework retrospectively to analyze and synthesize the communication strategies that emerged from practitioner descriptions. This analytical approach allowed for the identification of patterns in how practitioners addressed landowner capability, opportunity, and motivation in their beaver coexistence messaging.

Results

Practitioners employed multiple communication channels to listen for and respond to the three dimensions of the COM-B model in their interactions with landowners. Their communication strategies included tailoring messages to affirm and enhance landowner knowledge and skills related to beaver coexistence, identifying and addressing both site-specific physical contexts and broader social contexts, and aligning beaver impacts with individual landowner goals. The analysis revealed that practitioners were already addressing capability, opportunity, and motivation elements in their communication, even without explicitly using the COM-B framework to guide their approaches. These strategies reflected a sophisticated understanding of the need to adapt messaging to individual landowner circumstances and objectives.

Implications

The findings demonstrate that the COM-B model has utility beyond its traditional applications in audience analysis and behavioral intervention design. The model can serve as a tool for practitioners to retrospectively analyze and make sense of their existing communication efforts, identify potential gaps in their messaging approaches, and dynamically tailor their communication with landowners about coexistence behavior in real time. This application of COM-B offers a structured framework for understanding the multidimensional nature of practitioner communication about human-wildlife coexistence. The approach could provide conservation practitioners with techniques for systematically evaluating and refining their communication strategies to more effectively promote coexistence behaviors among private landowners.

Disclosure

• Research title: Synthesizing beaver coexistence messaging with the capability, opportunity, and motivation behavior model
• Authors: Brian Erickson, Megan S. Jones
• Publication date: 2026-01-07
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.70210
• OpenAlex record: View
• Disclosure: This post was generated by artificial intelligence. The original authors did not write or review this post.