August 12, 2016, by Lisa Chin
It’s all about the people
This post is written by Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, Associate Professor, MEME’s Principal Investigator, School of Environmental Science.
Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign was famously summarised by James Carville as It’s the economy, stupid. Conserving biodiversity in the 21st century is a bit more complex than designing catchy political campaigns but, if I had to try, I would follow a similar formula – It’s all about the people. (And I spare you the insult.)
But please don’t get me wrong. This is not about New Conservation and the idea that for conservation to matter it needs to serve the interests of people. Not really. I strongly believe in conservation for the sake of conservation; in wilderness; in that biodiversity matters more than people. This is a whole different discussion…
No. What I mean is that the best way to achieve effective conservation policies and practices is by infecting people with conservation values and then empowering them to have long and impactful careers. Andy Mack eloquently put it in a recent interview with Mongabay – ‘The key to tropical conservation: invest in people’.
Few times I’ve felt as proud as I did at Conservation Asia 2016, the joint conference of SCB Asia and ATBC Asia-Pacific (29 June – 2 July, Singapore). One of the largest and most interest conservation conferences ever held in Asia. For me, it was the first time I attended an academic conference without presenting any paper in the official programme. And the reason why I didn’t present any paper is because I’m becoming redundant in a team with plenty of very well-qualified students and staff. MEME and our extended research group contributed as many as 13 presentations. The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus had 21 delegates, including five undergrads and 10 grad students!
I know well that research alone doesn’t necessarily translate into effective conservation for biodiversity. But seeing so much good research coming from young Malaysians and an institution that six years ago had no conservation in its program, makes me feel extremely optimistic about the role that this generation will play for the conservation of Malaysian wildlife and other biodiversity. This is very good news for Malaysia.
Composite image of UNMC’s students, staff, and close collaborators attending and presenting papers at Conservation Asia 2016.
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