Mon | December 16, 2024 | 16:00 – 17:30 CEST
Jacqueline Loos is an environmental and sustainability scientist with a focus on sustainable landscape development. Her primary research interest lies in the relationships and interactions between the environment, biodiversity, and humans, which are embedded in socio-ecological systems. From an interdisciplinary perspective, she investigates sustainability, ecosystem services, and human-nature relationships on both conceptual and practical levels.
Unraveling Power Dynamics in Conservation and Restoration for Environmental Equity
Conservation and restoration of ecosystems are vital for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change, as highlighted by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. However, achieving effective on-the-ground interventions that align with other Sustainable Development Goals requires the careful integration of equity considerations. Many conservation and restoration initiatives suffer from power imbalances, resulting in uneven distributions of costs and benefits, exclusive decision-making processes, and the marginalization of specific groups. These dynamics not only conflict with local communities’ aspirations but have also led scholars to critique such interventions as neo-colonial, racist, and detrimental to fundamental human rights. Transformative change in research and practice can be achieved through holistic, social-ecological perspectives that address underlying power dynamics as a central component for governing equity in conservation and restoration efforts. This presentation will draw on (i) systematic literature reviews and (ii) case studies from Zambia, Tanzania, and Rwanda to examine how power imbalances can be acknowledged and addressed in the design and implementation of research and practical interventions.
Venue:
University of Cologne
Neues Seminargebäude, Ground Floor
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Cologne
