Paper short abstract:

Fleur Nash is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. A part of her research is focused on how researchers and practitioners can work together in conservation. She has been using various collaborative methods to work with a conservation INGO and local organisation out in Kenya.

Paper long abstract:

Critique from the outside, which is the form the majority of social research has taken in conservation, can fall on stubbornly closed ears. Conservation practitioners have pushed back against academic research, arguing that it is based in too much ideology and too little realism, resulting in a lack of understanding of the messy complex realities in which conservation organisations work. For critical social research to impact change on the ground, there is a need for researchers and practitioners to work together, not in silo.

This presentation will share a story of a collaboration between a PhD researcher and practitioners in a conservation INGO and local organisation in Kenya. The story aims to highlight three main points:

• Switching the lends to ‘study up’ those stereotypically seen as having more ‘power’ can offer insights into how rights based conservation approaches can be achieved in reality;

• Working together with practitioners through participatory action research can result in implementable change on the ground;

• To work in collaboration there needs to be consistent, transparent and timely communication throughout the research process.