Webinar Overview
PARTICIPANTS
Dr. Leeann Sullivan, Research Coordinator
Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial Indigenous and Tribal Populations (Maine)
Emily Boettger, Boston College
OVERVIEW
Social conflicts in wildlife conservation often center on the different ideological perspectives of consumptive v. non-consumptive users. While meeting the needs of both groups does present a conservation challenge, it marks only one of many possible "others" that may come into conflict within the public, between the public and experts, and even across species lines. In the face of multiple threats to wildlife — from climate change and habitat loss to increasing social discord — finding ways to bring people together around conservation within our current engagement structures can often feel impossible. Here, we explore whether changing those structures may help to shuffle, obscure, deconstruct, and reorganize social identities to open new opportunities for collaborative conservation. Specifically, we explore possible applications of participatory futuring in the conservation space that may help practitioners and the public alike come to see themselves as working toward a common vision amid an uncertain future.