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- Convenors:
-
Robert Fletcher
(Wageningen University)
Kate Massarella (Wageningen University)
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- Chair:
-
Robert Fletcher
(Wageningen University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel explores how a novel approach called convivial conservation – emphasizing coexistence and social justice – can be practically implemented through different case studies related to conservation of large carnivores in different parts of the world.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores the potential to develop and implement a novel approach to biodiversity conservation we call convivial conservation. Arising out of debates concerning how to transform conservation to address mounting challenges of the ‘’Anthropocene”, convivial conservation has been proposed as a socially just, democratic and inclusive approach to transformative change. Drawing on various perspectives from social theory, the natural sciences, social movements and grassroots voices from around the globe, convivial conservation is developing into a vision, a politics and a set of governance principles that aims to promoting equity, structural transformation and justice in conservation. This symposium explores some of the ways that the idea of convivial conservation can be translated into practice, and what some of the potential opportunities and barriers to implementation might be. We explore this through five diverse case studies in different parts of the world, focusing on conservation in relation to large carnivores specifically. Considered keystone and umbrella species vital to conserving wider ecosystems, large carnivores also often present threats to human lives and livelihoods and require considerable range. Hence their conservation is particularly challenging and a suitable limit case to explore the potential for a convivial approach to transform conservation policy and practice in biodiversity conservation more broadly.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 October, 2021, -Sanna Komi (University of Helsinki) Anja Nygren (University of Helsinki)
Paper short abstract:
Contrary to many other animals, wolves are often attributed agency in human-wolf conflicts, but these claims obscure human responsibility. Through political ecology, we emphasize uneven power relations between humans and wildlife, while highlighting non-human perspectives in convivial conservation.
Paper long abstract:
As anthropocentric approaches to wildlife conservation have failed in many respects and biodiversity depletion continues, questions of conviviality have become paramount for the future of life on the Earth. We argue that more careful attention to other-than-human perspectives in human-wildlife interactions presents an opportunity for new conceptualizations and understandings of the power relations at the intersections of nature and society. Here, we focus on the highly contested issue of wolf conservation. Contrary to many other animals, wolves are often attributed intentional agency in their actions that affect humans. We argue that these claims of wolves’ intentional agency can obscure aspects of human responsibility. Our study is based on ethnographic-oriented field research on human-wolf-interactions in Lieksa, northeastern Finland. The data has been gathered through qualitative interviews with more than 80 informants, complemented with participant observation, and subsequent interviews with conservation biologists and other wolf experts. Through the critical lens of political ecology, we emphasize power relations and questions of responsibility concerning post-human discourses on human-wildlife relations. It is important to recognize wolves’ value as such and pay attention to wolves’ intrinsic needs and patterns of behavior in questions of conviviality. However, we argue that it is crucial to maintain analytical distinctions between human agency and other-than human actions, as arguments of wolves as intentional actors may lead to underestimation of human responsibility, the role of political decision-making in wolf conservation, and uneven power relations between humans and animals/wildlife.
Laila Sandroni (University of São Paulo) Katia Ferraz (University of Sao Paulo (USP) - ESALQ)
Paper short abstract:
The paper aims to identify causes and solutions proposed by the most legitimate environmental narrative for the shared problem of Jaguar population decrease in the Brazilain Atlantic Forest, and put them in relation to the convivial conservation approach.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims at recoignizing the main issues at stake in Jaguar conservation and population decrease in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest (AF), one of the most biodiverse and fragmented ecosystems in the world. Numbers of Jaguars in the AF continue to decline and specialists estimate around 250 mature living adults in the whole biome (Galetti et al. 2013). This critical situation gathered a complex network of scientists, NGOs and public institutions working towards saving the remaining Jaguars and recognizing priority areas for protection, population supplementation and reintroduction. Over the past decade efforts have been made in field work and modeling to recognize spatial possibilities for population recovery (Ferraz et al. 2012), e.g., the identification of Jaguar Conservation Units (JCU) (Paviolo et al. 2016). We focus on two out of three JCUs contrasting an area where jaguar populations have been showing signs of recovery with another where there is no sign of recovery, respectively, the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (PNI) and the Serra do Mar Biodiversity Corridor (SMBC). In this context, our objetive is to identify causes and solutions proposed by the most legitimate environmental narrative for the shared problem of Jaguar population decrease in the AF, and put them in relation to the suggested convivial conservation approach. We depart from the colective stakeholder mapping exercise held by people working in conservation efforts in both study sites and historical data on Jaguar conservation in the AF to recognize the contours and length of the ‘jaguar conservation network’. We then move on to present the main issues at stake in this network in it’s homogeneity and plurality, following the statements of their participants. Finally we compare the visions and missions for Jaguar conservation in the AF with key aspects of the convivial conservation approach and possibilities for outscaling.
Svetoslava Toncheva (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation explores two contrast cases of human-bear cohabitation in Bulgaria aiming to answer the question how to transform conflict into convivial coexistence.
Paper long abstract:
The presentation discussed the question how to transform human-wildlife relations from conflict to coexistence applying the framework of convivial conservation as a novel approach intended to transform conservation policy and practice. It analyzes factors that may contribute to promoting successful coexistence between humans and brown bears exploring two cases from the Rodopi mountains of Bulgaria evidencing different degrees of conflict and coexistence between humans and brown bears. Doing so, the presentation reveals the main factors that lead to rather successful coexistence in the first case (the region of Yagodina), as well as those characterizing the conflict, in the second (three settlements along Arda river). In this way, it contributes to the major discussions concerning how to transform human-wildlife conflict into convivial coexistence (Büscher and Fletcher, 2020), demonstrating how attention to the immediate circumstances of human-wildlife encounter in such efforts should be complemented by promotion of more inclusive, democratic forms of decision-making and egalitarian distribution of economic resources.
Emiel de Lange Jocelyne Sze (University of Sheffield)
Paper short abstract:
A costing of a conservation basic income under various global conservation scenarios.
Paper long abstract:
Current conservation disproportionately burdens indigenous people, rural communities, and the world’s poorest populations. As policymakers finalise the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework - with the a vision of “living in harmony with nature” - pro-poor, conservation strategies are needed, aligned with delivering social justice and equity. One innovative approach is a conservation basic income (CBI), whereby all individuals in conservation-impacted communities receive unconditional payments. From a social welfare perspective, CBI could help recipients improve their living conditions, compensate for lost livelihood opportunities, provide reparations for past harms, and provide a mechanisms for redistribution of wealth from the global North; from a conservation perspective CBI could reduce dependence on extractive livelihoods and provide people with the freedom to develop other ways of relating to nature, while improving the legitimacy of conservation institutions. In this presentation we first explore the background and some promises and pitfalls of CBI. We then present results from the first attempt to estimate the cost of a global CBI, based on several spatially-explicit conservation scenarios, including: current conservation effort (i.e. populations living in existing protected areas) and proposed future conservation scenarios such as the ‘global safety net’ and ‘30x30’. We compare the resulting figures with the costs of current conservation efforts, other social spending programmes, harmful subsidies, and the benefits of conserving ecosystem services. Our results show that, if well-designed, CBI could offer a feasible mechanism for aligning conservation with social justice, to achieve a vision of living in harmony with nature for all.