For co-existence, (bio)diversity and justice in conservation

Research Symposium 1 November (Wageningen University): ‘Towards Convivial Conservation’

Towards Convivial Conservation? Governing Human-Wildlife Relations in the ‘Anthropocene’ (CONVIVA)

Research Symposium co-sponsered by Centre for Space Place and Society (CSPS)and Political ecology @ WUR

1 November 2018

Orion Building C2030

Wageningen University, the Netherlands

Convivial conservation is a new conservation approach that aims to move beyond currently dominant paradigms that promote nature-culture dualisms and market-based funding mechanisms. Both of these are increasingly recognized as obstacles to sustainable conservation, yet viable alternatives for transcending them have yet to be organized into a new paradigm and approach. The convivial conservation proposal has been conceptualized to fill this precise gap in envisioning integrated landscapes and new forms of wealth redistribution. Yet for its further practical operationalization, broader discussions amongst different conservation actors are needed. This seminar aims to give a strong impetus to these discussions by focusing on different responses to human-wildlife conflict cases around the world that may contain elements of a broader convivial conservation approach.

Seminar schedule:

8:45 – 9:00                       Coffee/tea

9:00 – 9:15                       Opening/welcome

Bram Büscher and Rob Fletcher, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University

9:15 – 10:30                     Session I: Relating Humans and Wildlife

Nature-based tourism and indigenous communities in the Brazilian Pantanal: between representations of biodiversity and biocultural diversity

Koen Arts, Forest and Nature Conservation, Wageningen University

Institutional Arrangements for Conservation, Development and Tourism in Eastern and Southern Africa

René van der Duim, Cultural Geography, Wageningen University

The importance of emotions in human-wildlife relationships

Maarten Jacobs, Cultural Geography, Wageningen University

Carnivores, colonisation and conflict: how to subjugate a nation and its wildlife

Niki Rust, Research Associate, Newcastle University

10:30 – 10:45                  Coffee/tea

10:45 – 12:00                  Session II: Human-wildlife co-existence in practice I

Designing wild-user friendly conservation technologies for animals

Clemens Driessen, Cultural Geography, Wageningen University

Behavioural Ecology and Wildlife Conservation

Marc Naguib, Behavioral Ecology, Wageningen University

Living with the wolf: A Luhmannian perspective to human-wildlife conflict in Redes Natural Park, Spain

Isabeau Ottolini and Arjaan Pellis (Cultural Geography) and Jasper de Vries (Strategic Communication), Wageningen University

Human-bear cohabitation in Rodopi mountains, Bulgaria

Svetoslava Toncheva, Comparative Folklore Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

12:00 – 13:00                   Lunch (in Orion cafeteria)

13:00 – 14:15                   Session III: Human-wildlife co-existence in practice II

Managing human-wildlife conflicts: examples from WWF programmes

Femke Hilderink-Koopmans, World Wildlife Fund Netherlands

Re-examining wildlife management: Living with bears and boars

Susan Boonman-Berson, Independent Researcher, www.bearatwork.org

Balancing with the Wolfs? Institutional change in dealing with large carnivores in Törbel (Switzerland)

Ariane Zangger, Department of Anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland

What do animals tell us about poaching?

Frank van Langevelde, Resource Ecology, Wageningen University

14:15 – 15:30                  Session IV: Species, entanglements and politics

Landscape as a trap: tracing duck decoys as multi-species living machines

Eugenie van Heijgen, Cultural Geography, Wageningen University

Global conservation, local negotiation: a case of Barnacle geese

Yulia Kisora, Cultural Geography, Wageningen University

The Apex-Handbag: From egg-gathering natives via croc-farmers to the distributers of quality leather in a global market

Samuel Weissman, Department of Anthropology, University of Bern

The dynamic and two dimensional nature of human-wildlife relations: Learnings from a biosocial study on human-tiger interactions from Panna Tiger Reserve, India

Shekhar Kolipaka, Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University

15:30 – 15:45                    Coffee/tea break

15:45 – 17:00                  Session V: CON-VIVA Project Case Studies

Jaguar Conservation, Brazil

Katia Ferraz, Forest Science Department, University of São Paulo

Grizzly Bear Reintroduction, US (California)

Peter Alagona, Departments of History and Geography, University of California – Santa Barbara

Lion Conservation, Tanzania

Amy Dickman, Wildlife Conservation Research, Oxford University

Grey Wolf Conservation, Finland

Anja Nygren, Development Studies, University of Helsinki

17:00 – 17:15                   Closing