Tag: Summer Exchange

Hosted by Dr. Munib Khanyari 

Asia’s mountain ungulates play an important role in maintaining ecosystems by influencing vegetation structure and nutrient cycling. There is a need for more information about the population status of these ungulates, which carries special significance in the protection of the snow leopard across its range. This session will explore a range of mountain ungulate monitoring and conservation approaches. Dr. Munib Khanyari will facilitate the session. He works with the Nature Conservation Foundation as a Program Manager. He works primarily across the Trans-Himalayan region of India, aiming to build positive human-nature relationships.

Dr. Eirini Skrimizea

Participatory climate risk assessment for integrating climate change considerations into development and conservation efforts. Climate risk assessments allow to understand climate risk and vulnerabilities, and can support in identifying and selecting adaptation strategies aligned with development goals and conservation efforts. The meaningful inclusion of the communities in the process is necessary in order to obtain valuable information, raise awareness and ensure adaptation actions that are relevant to the local contexts. In this module these issues and more will be discussed. Participants will be introduced to basic climate change related concepts, and exposed – through an interactive exercise – to a method for participatory climate risk assessment based on the ‘Climate impact Chains’ analytical approach. The module will draw on the example of participatory climate risk assessments in Kyrgyzstan showing how these integrated considerations on human-wildlife conflict with focus on snow leopards. Dr. Eirini Skrimizea  will facilitate the session. Eirini Skrimizea is a postdoctoral researcher with a background in planning and sustainability research. She has expertise on governance of socio-ecological development and the social aspects of climate change in the Global North and South.

Dr. Sahil Nijhawan

Significant focus has been placed on community-based conservation in recent decades. However, much purported community-based conservation research and practice continues to be top-down, where local people are seen as beneficiaries and stakeholders, but not right-holders. In this workshop, using case studies, we will explore efforts to make conservation research and practice more equitable, ethical and horizontal. We will discuss the philosophy, practice and challenges of conducting rights-based and truly collaborative conservation. Dr. Sahil Nijhawan is an interdisciplinary conservation anthropologist who has worked on human-wildlife relations across Latin America, Southern Africa and India. For the past decade, he has worked alongside the indigenous Idu Mishmi people of Arunachal Pradesh (India) – a journey that began with his doctoral research on socio-cultural, ecological and political relations between the Idu Mishmi and tigers. He is now part of local teams in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland working on a range of locally-led initiatives towards rights-based bio-cultural conservation and research. 

The recording of this session is available on request.

Ajay Bijoor and Deepshikha Sharma

Engaging and partnering with such local communities is critical to the success of conservation efforts. The PARTNERS principles offer a framework to consciously and effectively engage communities. This approach of eight broad principles can offer support to not only conservationists but anyone who is engaging with communities. In this session, we will explore these principles briefly and understand their working through case-studies. Ajay Bijoor and Deepshikha Sharma will facilitate the Session. Ajay has been working with local communities and government agencies to plan and implement conservation action in the high-elevation landscapes of India for the past 7 years. He has also been exploring the intersection of conservation with local knowledge systems, resource management, and local and global economy. Deepshikha has been facilitating community led conservation in snow leopard habitat in Himachal Pradesh & Ladakh. She is working towards raising awareness and reducing losses faced by local communities due to wildlife. She is also working towards bringing local women to the forefront of conservation in the landscape.

Dr. Orjan Johansson + Dr. Koustubh Sharma

Carnivores leave behind signs- such as tracks, droppings, sprays and carcasses. They also can be heard- making unique sounds. The team will discuss how researchers can distinguish between the unique signs of felids (snow leopards, lynx etc.) and canids (wolves, feral dogs, red foxes). They will share strategies and potential pitfalls to look out for. Dr. Orjan Johansson and Dr. Koustubh Sharma will lead the session. Orjan is a Senior Scientist for the Snow Leopard Trust and has supported the Long Term Ecological Program in Mongolia for over a decade. Kuban is the Director of the Snow Leopard Foundation Kyrgyzstan.