The Conservation Discussion Group’ will be held once a week in the Biodiversity Research Centre room 225 on Thursdays from 1:30-2:30pm starting on September 20th.
For many researchers in BRC, IOF, Forestry, Land and Food Systems, and other departments across UBC, conservation interests form the foundation of why we do what we do. Conservation serves as a strong motivation for understanding how climate change is impacting our world, exploring management and governance strategies for resource management, and studying threatened species and ecosystems. Beyond the bounds of conservation science, many of us wish to reduce the impact that humans are having on this earth.
Accordingly, we feel that there is a need to establish a weekly conservation discussion group, similar to the existing biodiversity and evolution discussion groups. Our goal is to gather students, researchers, and faculty from various departments into one room to promote interdisciplinary learning and discussion.
Some potential upcoming discussion topics include:
- Linking research with decision-making (science in advisory roles in governance and multi-stakeholder processes and projects)
- Linking research with management (exploring cumulative effects assessments, urban, agricultural, and marine spatial planning, ecosystem based management)
- Linking research with human societies (the role of Indigenous governance and traditional ecological knowledge in resource management and conservation, soil conservation biology)
- Linking research with outreach (science communication, citizen science, science and art)
We welcome your thoughts on the value and structure of this group. If there is a topic you feel strongly about we would love for you to participate in that week’s discussion group, or host a week’s meeting with your topic. Please pass on this information to any student and/or faculty you think would be interested, and feel free to subscribe to our listserv (conservation@zoology.ubc.ca) for updates by sending an e-mail with ‘subscribe’ in the subject field.
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Chelsea Gowton
MSc Student | Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution Lab | The University of British Columbia
Tel: 778-319-4389