NRE Seminar Series, Spring 2026 - Heidi Kretser

Seminar title: Conservation social sciences in a human rights-based approach to global conservation | Sustaining biodiversity through conservation practice requires working with Indigenous People and local communities (IP & LCs) living inside or around protected areas. Whilst conservation programming has, in some places, collaborated with IP & LCs for decades, it has been insufficient. Funding is now contingent on the conservation community showing how collective and individual rights are being protected in conservation programming. To achieve conservation and human rights outcomes, engagement with IP & LCs requires a human rights-based approach (HRBA). Although creating high-level policies about including human rights and safeguards as key components of project design is relatively straightforward, effective implementation on the ground is not. The conservation field requires new skillsets combined with a mindset shift for field practitioners and governments to implement an HRBA. Conservation social scientists can shape many aspects of this transition to more just and equitable conservation practice through the application of theory and methods to many aspects of a human rights-based approach to conservation: from the basics of data collection on community well-being, to establishing safeguards such as Free Prior and Informed Consent and Grievance Redress Mechanisms, to influencing project design. Effective tools and approaches from the social sciences will facilitate implementation and achieve long-term mutual goals of conservation and human well-being.