Module 7: Active Listening in Community Conservation
An on-line resource for practitioners
About this mini-course
When working with communities and local people, our ability to listen attentively can go a long way in gaining a greater understanding of the context and the perspectives of different people. It also is key to building trust with communities and individuals. In order to really understand and empathise with others it is essential to be able to listen to what others are saying, without distraction, without hearing what you think you should hear, and without immediately jumping to conclusions. Active listening is a skill that can be learned and does help us as conservationists in the practice of empathy. It does require however concentration, practice and reflection. This course will introduce you to the principles of Active Listening and give you practical tools to build these skills.
Module 7- Active listening in community conservation– builds on Module 3’s PARTNERS Principle’s community conservation focus. This Module is offered thanks to the support of the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comte, the Nature Conservation Foundation and the Snow Leopard Trust. The course was conducted live through an on-line session (2 hours) with Snow Leopard Network participants in January 2021. The recordings from this live training are now available below. If you have any questions about the course or accessing the reading material please contact us.
Meet the facilitators
Juliette Young is a senior researcher at INRAE (France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) where she studies the human dimensions of biodiversity conservation. Much of her work focuses on the role of different actors, especially decision-makers and local communities, in the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity. She has been working with the Snow Leopard Trust since 2016 on training in community-based conservation.
Ajay Bijoor and Justine Shanti Alexander support Juliette in leading the course. Over the last eight years, Ajay he has worked on setting up, running and monitoring community–conservation efforts in Ladakh and Spiti valley in India. Justine acts as the Regional Ecologist for the Snow Leopard Trust and supports research and conservation work across China, Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Pakistan.
Abhijit Dutta, Benazir Kabaeva, Deepshikha Sharma, Nadia Mijiddorj, Ranjini Murali and Rakhee Karumbaya also join us in facilitating breakout room discussions during the session. They bring perspectives and experiences of working in snow leopard conservation across the range including Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, India.
“I am working on the conservation and ecological issue of snow leopards in Qomolangma NNR (Mt.Everest), China. Thank you all so much for organising such fantastic series of online courses involving multi conservation subjects. It provides me powerful tools for a better understanding of my work, and a very good opportunity to discuss with global conservationists. I will try to apply all these techniques that I learned here in the conservation practice of China.
Thanks for all of your efforts and help!”
Chauncey, China
“My work focuses on understanding and tackling potential conflicts involving humans and reintroduced species of ungulates and carnivores, across different landscapes. When working with local communities, I have learned the critical aspects of trust and cooperation, and how much these are more easily lost than gained.
This course gave me the tools I needed to practice and be able to listen, something fundamental in the trust-building process. I believe this course will be beneficial to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the perspectives of different people and work together towards long-lasting solutions.”
Flavia, Brazil
Session 1: Active Listening
Congratulations for completing this on-line course!
If you have any further questions please do get in touch