Compassionate conservation and rewilding in Thailand. Source: Liv Baker.Team Lead: Liv Baker, PhD
The Compassionate Conservation Initiative (CCI) at PAN Works challenges us rethink the entrenched and often overlooked ways we circumscribe the lives of wild animals and asks us to explore their lives as individual beings who have lived experiences and agency.
Research, teaching and training projects within the initiative are underway. These include:
the Compassionate Conservation Delphi research project,
a field course on Asian elephants, compassionate conservation and rewilding,
a research article on the “Principles of Compassionate Conservation,” and
webinars and workshops on the science, ethics, policy and practice of compassionate conservation starting in the spring of 2023.
In the future, the Initiative aims to build out a wealth of inter-related projects. These include the following.
A research platform that networks individuals and organizations sympathetic to compassionate conservation, and fosters critical examination of our approaches to biodiversity conservation, wildlife management, environmental policy and sustainability.
A focus on building the ethical capacity of conservation, ecological and development students and professionals to better respond to ongoing and new environmental and social challenges.
A global faculty of professional compassionate conservation practitioners across a wide swath of disciplines who can offer opportunities of internships, practicums, graduate work, and professional collaborations.
An educational curriculum encompassing continuing, experiential, field and traditional education to help students and professionals integrate the theory and practice of compassionate conservation.
A savvy use of traditional and social media to support the objectives of the Compassionate Conservation Initiative.
