Leading Scientists Work Together to Tackle Conservation Conflicts

New research and an international conference will investigate what it takes to get different groups to start working together to tackle environmental issues.

Conservationists are increasingly coming into conflict with land managers, companies and in some cases governments who have different priorities.  Using cutting edge techniques and collaboration, scientists want to find out what it would take to get opposing groups to work together, for the benefit of environment, people and economy.

Researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen, Leuphana (Germany) and Leeds are currently analysing hundreds of environmental decision-making processes from around the world, and conducting in-depth interviews with people involved in some of the decisions.  Funded by the British Academy and the German Research Foundation, they want to find out what sorts of approaches have helped people work together in different conservation conflict situations.

Dr. Mark Reed, Acting Director of the Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability, from the School of Geosciences at the University of Aberdeen, who is leading the British Academy project, states:

"By understanding why different approaches to managing conflict work in different contexts, we can help people design decision-making processes that are more likely to be successful in the long term."

Prof. Jens Newig from Germany’s Leuphana University Lüneburg explains:

“Looking at hundreds of in-depth case-studies from around the globe allows us to precisely determine factors for success - or failure - in collaborative decision-making”.

This research will be presented alongside findings from hundreds of other projects researching conservation conflicts in the first ever international conservation conflicts conference (http://www.aces-2011.org/) to be hosted by the Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability and funded by the British Ecological Society and the UK Rural Economy Land Use Programme, in August 2011.

Dr. Anna Evely from the ACES 2011 conference explains:

"This conference is like no other.  It is cutting edge, bringing together scientists, practitioners, artists and musicians to really get to the heart of tackling conservation conflict."

"This conference has attracted researchers, artists and musicians from all over the world; including Japan, Iran, S. Africa, Thailand, Australia, Brazil and U.S.A. Such an event has never happened before and the outcome for conservation will be ground breaking."

Notes for editors:

To learn more about the ACES2011 conference and to register for a press pass, see http://www.aces-2011.org/

To find out more about the research led by Dr. Mark Reed, please email m.reed@abdn.ac.uk or call 0753 8082343 (M); 01466 799205 (H); 01224 274165 (O)

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