Conservation professionals face cognitively and emotionally demanding tasks and a wide range of working conditions, including high levels of uncertainty (e.g. the socio-political contexts in which they must function, possible long hours and isolation from friends and family). Resilience (i.e. positive adaptation to professional challenges) can help individuals thrive in their roles. We interviewed 22 conservationists with professional experience working in low-income countries with high biodiversity and explored what helped and what hindered them in their work. We used thematic analysis to identify factors related to positive and negative psychological states and strategies to promote resilience at work. The results revealed factors that were associated with positive psychological states, including achievements and recognition for work. Organizational policies and administration, especially perceived unfairness regarding salaries, recruitment policies and promotion, were associated with negative psychological states, as were other factors related to the job context. Respondents shared their professional resilience strategies such as aligning work with one's values, and personal reflection and goal setting. We recommend that organizations support their employees in the process of building resilience by addressing basic needs and motivational factors.

When it is most fair for a claimant to receive a particular chance of benefiting (e.g. 50%) but they instead receive a different chance of benefiting (e.g. 40%), this lower chance is not ideally fair. I specify the often-overlooked type of individual unfairness evident in differences of this kind and argue for four intuitively supported criteria that a measure of this unfairness must meet. I defend the Asymmetrical Proportional View, which meets these criteria and is a measure of how individually unfair any particular difference of this kind is. Finally I conclude with the View's implications for theories of distributive fairness.