Project Outline: Investigating Morally Contested Conservation

This summer, I will work closely with Dr. Shorna Allred and Dr. Darragh Hare on their ongoing project titled “Morally Contested Conservation.” By conducting translational research in English and in Swahili, I hope to make the nuances of human-wildlife interactions more accessible to non-specialists.
Project Outline: Investigating Morally Contested Conservation
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Morally-Contested Conservation: Evidence to Inform Policy

Supervisors: Dr. Shorna Allred, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and Department of Global Development, Cornell University; Dr. Darragh Hare, Department of Biology, University of Oxford

Penning papers about conservation activism among sportspeople and reading emotionally-charged stories about human-wildlife conflicts have piqued my interest in using writing to convey the complexity of controversial environmental issues to the public and policymakers. By joining the Morally Contested Conservation (MCC) team, I will explore the ecological and socio-cultural complexities of various forms of wildlife conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa – and the potential of translational research to expand awareness of them.

Project Background

When the interests of distant elites conflict with the livelihoods of inhabitants of biodiversity-rich areas in the Global South, tension results. Apart from providing a source of meat or employment for African communities, certain forms of hunting promote conservation by providing funding to increase tracts of protected land. In the US and Europe, however, many policymakers and members of the public believe that hunting in Africa not only threatens animal populations but also reproduces colonial-era White dominance. Protecting local wildlife without compromising the rights of African people has consequently become a publicly-disputed challenge – one in which voices from the Global North typically triumph.

A collaboration among researchers in the US, the UK, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, MCC examines perspectives around highly contentious issues in African wildlife conservation, including the intersections between hunting, human rights, international social justice, and economic security. The core MCC team, comprising faculty from Cornell and Oxford University, four African graduate students, and an African postdoc, is currently conducting fieldwork in five rural African locations. These researchers are collecting data on how rural Africans, whose perspectives are typically excluded from international debates but whose safety and livelihoods are at stake, perceive controversial issues such as retaliatory animal killings, trophy hunting, and punishment for wildlife crimes. In 2023, the researchers will analyze data on the extent to which perspectives differ by region (US, UK, and Sub-Saharan Africa) and by rural or urban residence, sharing their results with the scientific community through academic publications.

Methodology

Just as important as informing the academe is informing those whose decisions affect people and wildlife in Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of my research, I will convert academic publications into blogs, policy briefs, and op-eds that can be easily understood by non-academic decision-makers and the general public, as well as by the African communities that welcomed MCC researchers. By using my writing to communicate technical results, I hope to disseminate more accurate information about controversies where local and external views often collide, thereby amplifying rural African perspectives on issues typically dominated by interests from the Global North. 

My translational research will also encompass my growing interest in Swahili. As I continue to learn the language at Cornell, I will deepen my speaking and writing skills, as well as my knowledge of East-African culture, by translating technical reports into understandable material in Swahili. With the input of native Swahili-speaking MCC researchers Salum Kulunge, Betty Rono, and David Kimaili, I will learn how to clearly communicate conservation discussions to people living in Kenya and Tanzania who are affected by human-wildlife conflicts firsthand.

Objectives

I ultimately hope to use my translational research to find common ground between local and external communities, and to amplify the voices of rural Africans in the conservation conversation. Successfully conserving wildlife will require the collaboration of a diverse array of individuals, and I am determined for my contributions as a Laidlaw Scholar to help reconcile multiple perspectives – and enable conservation and human rights to unite.

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