Conditional visibility: Intersectional inequities marginalize local scholarship in conservation science

Structural inequities in conservation science, rooted in center-periphery dynamics, funding asymmetries, and systemic gender disparities, marginalize Global South scholarship. This marginalization impedes the integration of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK), effectively decoupling local scholarship from global conservation discourse. We analyzed 132 peer-reviewed articles on Philippine aquatic ILK and environmental stewardship. We modeled how author affiliation (International/Local), gender (Male/Female), and funding status (Funded/Unfunded) shaped scholarly visibility using scientometric mapping and factorial analysis. Our findings revealed a clear thematic segregation: international scholars focused on the highly visible Applied Conservation cluster (median Citations Per Year [CPY] = 2.06), but Philippine scholars concentrated on the less visible Ethnoecology and Governance cluster (median CPY = 0.80). Globally, our modeling reveals a significant three-way interaction (Analysis of Variance [ANOVA], F (1124) = 12.06, p < 0.001). Pairwise comparison confirmed an intersectional pattern: funded Philippine male scholars achieved statistical parity with international peers, yet funded Philippine female scholars remained significantly marginalized. This demographic hierarchy was absent in the Philippines-only subset ( F (3,72) = 0.92, p > 0.05). These findings highlight conditional visibility : the impact of local scholarship is shaped not by merit alone but by intersectional hierarchies of affiliation, funding, and gender. Achieving global knowledge equity demands dismantling these hierarchies to end the erasure of local, and particularly female, scholarship in conservation science.