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Best Practices Survey—Promising First Step toward Developing Guidelines
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Schaefer, Jame Higgins, Susan |
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Abstract | Jame Schaefer and Susan Higgins* On behalf of the Religion and Conservation Biology Working Group Society for Conservation Biology December 2016 Background Established in 2007, the Religion and Conservation Biology Working Group (RCBWG) focuses on strengthening dialogue between biological conservation and religious communities throughout the world and promoting within the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) an awareness of the importance of their collaboration. This commitment has prompted research and action to discourage religious communities from using ivory that has been brutally removed from the endangered African elephant and to encourage Buddhist communities to adopt ecologically compatible and compassionate ways of practicing the release of animals for merit.1 To further discussion within the SCB, the RCBWG sponsored symposia at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in 2013 and 2015 at which members shared projects in which they had involved religious leaders and communities, and a forum was held at the 2015 ICCB at which Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si, On Care for Our Common Home'2 and other religious sources for addressing conservation issues were discussed. Emerging during these congresses was an increasing interest among some SCB members to engage religious leaders and communities because their approval and/or help was needed to initiate, participate in, and/or advocate the implementation of conservation projects. Especially important to SCB members was a desire to hear one another's stories about approaches they used to interact in constructive ways that resulted in successful outcomes of their projects. This growing interest among SCB members prompted the Board of the RCBWG to incorporate in its 2015 Strategic Plan the goal of identifying best practice guidelines for SCB members to consider when needing and/or wanting to engage religious leaders and communities in conservation projects. After months of planning, the three‐year Best Practices Project was approved in March 2016 and shared subsequently with the SCB's Board of Governors. The first step of this project was surveying the full membership of the SCB for their experiences when relating to religious communities—the focus of this report. Subsequent steps include (1) highlighting in a symposium to be proposed for the 2017 ICCB successful practices that SCB members shared in the survey, (2) holding a workshop following the symposium at which guidelines for establishing a working relationship with religious leaders and communities will be drafted, (3) submitting the guidelines to the SCB Board of Governors by January 2018 for promulgation and promotion through SCB communication channels, (4) conducting workshops on the guidelines at sectional SCB meetings in 2018, (5) organizing a symposium at the 2019 ICCB during which successful collaborations of religions and conservation communities will be shared and celebrated, and (6) sharing the outcome of the Best Practices Project with other |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://conbio.org/images/content_news_blog/RCB+BestPracticesSummary_12.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://conbio.org/images/content_groups/Religion/Best_Practices_Survey%E2%80%94Promising_First_Step_toward_Developing_Guidelines_(December_2016).pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
