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What Do the Social Sciences Have to Offer? Multiple Social Science Perspectives for Conservation Planning
Instructors: Professors Tara Teel and Michael Manfredo, Colorado State University; Dr. Michael Mascia, Social Science Working Group (SCB) tteel@lamar.colostate.edu
Successful biodiversity conservation efforts require understanding not only of the natural environment but the needs, interests, and capacities of stakeholders. These social considerations are critical to ensuring conservation decisions adequately address challenges and opportunities associated with human factors. The reality, however, is that priority is still largely directed at biological research to inform decisions. This is in part due to a limited understanding among conservation practitioners of the social sciences. Our short course will be directed at building capacity among practitioners and young scientists by offering them a framework for thinking about the role of the social sciences in helping to address conservation challenges. We will overview the contributions of different social science disciplines in the context of an interdisciplinary planning structure and use case studies to illustrate application at a practical level. Participants will also be given an opportunity to think through and discuss local conservation challenges and how the social sciences might be applied to assist with those challenges. In addition to the described training, our short course is intended to strengthen professional networks by linking practitioners with social science experts from around the world and helping to create a community of practice among conservationists working in Africa. |
