Holistic approaches to conservation

Hear examples of ZSL's projects across the world.

As conservationists we aim to create a world where wildlife thrives, but how can we achieve this?

Conservation interventions are often necessitated by a growing human population and that population’s impact on its environment.

To reduce the threat to wildlife, we need to target the source: humans and the way in which populations interact with wildlife. This includes protecting and restoring physical habitat for wildlife, alongside motivating and equipping people to pursue livelihoods that do not degrade the landscape.

To achieve this, a holistic approach is needed, capable of reconciling the diverse interests of local people, government agencies and corporations for the benefit of biodiversity.

ZSL runs holistic conservation programmes in 13 countries and is just getting started in many more. Working with people is central to each of these projects, and the involvement of hundreds of thousands of people underpins the conservation successes.

This event explored what has been achieved so far using examples from a range of ZSL's conservation programmes. ZSL is taking care of people, so they can take care of wildlife. 

Speakers:

• Dr Samel Merson, Mongolia Project Coordinator, ZSL: "Working with herders to conserve Mongolia's wildlife and preseve traditional livelihoods"

• Jake Williams, Deputy Conservation Manager and Impact Manager, ZSL: "Tackling human-wildlife conflict for equitable protected areas and ongoing tiger recovery in Nepal"

• Dr Claudia Gray, Conservation Science Manager, EDGE of Existence Programme, ZSL: "EDGE species, local communities and conservation action"

• Alison Debney, Senior Conservation Programme Manager for UK & Europe, ZSL: "How the Essex Oystermen are driving the return of our native oyster"

• This event was chaired by the Director of Conservation and Policy at ZSL, Dr Andrew Terry.