Adventures in Socioecology

A blog detailing the articles, literature, ideas and thoughts that interest me as I navigate the world as an early career researcher specialising in interdisciplinary research and socioecology looking at the effectiveness of conservation action and incorporating socially-just work into our field. I advocate for the increased inclusivity of conservation action, working in an interdisciplinary team environment, incorporating local, traditional and indigenous ecological knowledge and I use GIS to aid in my work looking at the impacts of armed conflict  and militia groups on local people and the effectiveness of conservation, particularly protected areas. I have completed research on Western media framing and the effects of framing in the Eastern DRC, and have a large research interest in green militarisation, its rise in African conservation and critically assessing its impacts and effectiveness for local people and the natural environment. Researching Central Africa, based in New Zealand, BSc (Applied Conservation and Geospatial Science) at AUT. 

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Some new (to me) papers

You know when you’re looking for a certain paper on the Internet, but then can’t find it, but instead stumble across a different, brilliant one instead. One where even the “similar articles” are also great? Below are the links to 5 papers on conservation social science and the integration of social science into effective conservation that I really enjoyed stumbling upon.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27334309

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26081769

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23574343

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26801337

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24962114

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New Zealand Ecology Society Conference 25th - 29th November 2018

I have just gotten back from spending the last week in Wellington where I was lucky enough to present my research on taking a socioecological approach to conservation in the Virunga National Park during the “Social” session on Wednesday. The abstract for my conference paper is above, and my slides are below.

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Another day, another conference presentation to prep for!

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Multitouch web mapping application for browsing and comparing historic imagery from USGS Landsat satellites.

Pretty amazing new (or at least new to me) Landsat tool for looking at change over time on a really awesome fine spatial scale!

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14754835.2014.988781

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https://www.conservation.org/How/Pages/Respecting-human-rights-in-conservation.aspx

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071732116X

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My research has shown me that at least in the Virunga National Park these processes have become the new norm through media framing and a eurocentric view of conservation, and that it is not an effective or socially-just conservation tool. Full article here https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/we-need-to-talk-about-militarisation-of-conservation/

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The latest issue of one of my favourite journals, Conservation Letters, came out today! And the best part? It’s all open access! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1755263x/current

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An oldie but a goodie that can be found here http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1641/0006-3568%282001%29051%5B0933%3ATEOTWA%5D2.0.CO%3B2

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The ‘cost’ of inequitable development

As I finish off my research project and look outwards towards recommendations, and what these actually mean for development in Africa, and what it means for conservation I’ve been doing some broad reading and listening.

I was listening to a speech by Helen Clark (the administrator of UNDP and past NZ PM) and came across this gem of a report

From my research I now come at conservation from a perspective of inclusivity and ensuring that all groups are brought along on the journey of conservation with us, in my case in the establishment, management and ‘success’ of protected areas. It is particularly important to on-board groups like women and indigenous groups instead of either coming at conservation from a eurocentric view and excluding these groups and those in the local context that do not conform to the eurocentric and more anthropocentric views of nature and conservation, or by selecting the same decision-makers to sit around the table which often lack diversity. More diverse perspectives are likely to cause more conservation conflict because these people are likely to have altering perspectives, but I argue that this also offers the greatest method to solve these conflicts as you’re able to see an ecosystem and its related social context holistically and as a whole. Otherwise you need to rely on those in positions of power that are privileged enough to be able to sit around the table to provide their often more narrower view of conservation or the interactions with an environment. This is unlikely to capture the majority of interactions and when an ecosystem is not viewed holistically it is here where potentially socially-unjust action can occur.

I argue this importance through principles of sociology and doing what I think is socially-just and inclusive, but a lot of people in this world respond to things like economics, and it is reports like this which demonstrate why including stakeholders like women is important, not least of all to capture their opinion’s and inclusive input, but to also increase productivity, GDP and invigorate the economy. 

The report can be viewed here:http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/hdr/2016-africa-human-development-report.html

And they have an awesome interactive data display website here: https://parsons.nyc/undp/

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The interesting morning read adding to the literature trying to best work out how we prioritise limited resources into the conservation work that needs to be done

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Just a couple of pieces for some light weekend reading...

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Actually a bit proud of the New Zealand school curriculum! A very social science heavy perspective on socioecology and the interactions between people socially, but with a bit of imagination it can easily apply to looking at the connections between individuals/groups/society and the natural world