Sustainability of biodiversity conservation: too expensive for humans or can we find solutions?

Organizer: Alison Specht
Format: Onsite-Online, Afternoon

Abstract:
Instruments for the conservation of biodiversity are frequently seen as counter-productive for human life and prosperity. This session will provide a basis for lively discussion and knowledge-sharing using evidence-based science, the incorporation of indigenous values, and insights from practice to achieve good biodiversity conservation outcomes within our Sustainable Development Goals. Our five speakers offer different perspectives and solutions around the socio-economic factors influencing practical community and government attitudes and actions, the value of indigenous involvement, and the opportunities arising from technological innovation and knowledge-sharing. All speakers have been directly involved with members of their community affected by conservation actions. We have designed the session to stimulate thought and discussion around this important topic, enhanced by information from a prior on-line survey of conference attendees. We ask the following questions to focus our discussion: • does the human community ‘own’ biodiversity conservation enough to make it sustainable in the long-term? What can we learn from each other? • Is the cost of conservation (perceived as) too high and how can we change this? • Are we able to really measure anything effectively (i.e. are the costs and benefits real or just believed) to know how we are going? • How can we better engage the community to invest in conservation action and benefit from it, not just talk about it? • what innovative solutions and new tools are most promising? • can open science and open data initiatives help? We will have a twitter feed to ensure broad participation. The session is facilitated by members of PARSEC (Building New Tools for Data Sharing and Reuse through a Transnational Investigation of the Socioeconomic Impacts of Protected Areas), a Belmont Forum- funded international project with partners from Brazil, France, Japan, the United States of America, and collaborators in the UK, Taipei and Australia.

Themes: Sustainable Solutions from the Global South, Integrated Action for the SDGs, Knowledge-to-Action