What is ‘conservation biology’ in 2015?
What has it accomplished, and how has it failed?
How can we improve it? Does it need reinvention?
Join the Ecology@UVic community and conservation scientists to discuss future directions of conservation biology in British Columbia and beyond. We are delighted to announce that featured guest speaker Michael Soulé will be joined by Harvey Locke, Jens Wieting, and Chris Darimont at the University of Victoria this November for a week of events on campus.
Michael Soulé Harvey Locke Jens Wieting Chris Darimont
No registration required, all are welcome to all events!
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Event Schedule
Tuesday, November 17th
In Conversation: Future Directions for Conservation Biology
Ecology@UVic Discussion Group in conversation with Michael Soulé: following Soulé’s groundbreaking 1985 essay in Bioscience, “What Is Conservation Biology? “, we will discuss the foundations and future directions of conservation biology. In an era of unprecedented environmental change – as well as disagreement among scientists about how society best deal with it – we will ask what the discipline has accomplished, what can be improved, and where we can go from here.
12:30-2:30pm David Turpin Building, room B215
Workshop: Planning for Coastal Connectivity
Interactive workshop with Harvey Locke: building on lessons from the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative (Y2Y), we will discuss and brainstorm considerations, challenges, and objectives in planning for coastal connectivity from Southern Vancouver Island to Southeast Alaska. Open to all interested participants. Input from this workshop may guide future habitat conservation initiatives from biologists and the Coexisiting with Carnivores Alliance on Vancouver Island.
2:30-5:00pm MacLarin Building, room D105
Lecture: Connectivity & Conservation in BC
School of Environmental Studies & Sierra Club BC Public Talk with Harvey Locke & Jens Wieting: leaders in the conservation movement from the Rockies and coastal BC discuss biodiversity and the importance of connecting small- to large-scale wildlife corridors.
See here for FB event page.
7:30-9:00pm David Turpin Building, room A110
Wednesday, November 18th
Lecture: Ecology and Management of Human Predators
School of Environmental Studies Public Talk with Chris Darimont. Humans exert their influence on the natural world in profound ways, including exploiting wild stocks of fish and wildlife. Chris shares recent work that has examined what sets humans apart from other predators, and discusses whether we are accomplished ‘super managers’ or unsustainable ‘super predators’.
11:30-12:50pm David Turpin Building, room B247
Lecture: The Anthropocene: Nature’s Final Bow?
Department of Geography Special Lecture: In this public talk, Michael Soulé explores the intentions and efficacy of conservation biology for maintaining biodiversity in an era of incredible human impact. Regarding the fate of nature and biodiversity, he is neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but a “possibilist,” believing in the possibility that elements of nature and wildness (such as large carnivores) will persist beyond 2035.
4:00-5:30pm, Human and Social Development Building, room A240
For more information, please email megan (dot) s (dot) adams (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Guests of Conservation Week
Michael Soulé, often warmly referred to as the ‘grandfather of conservation biology’, is a professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. Michael was a founder and first President of the Society for Conservation Biology and The Wildlands Network. He has written and/or edited books and journal articles on population and evolutionary biology, island biogeography, conservation biology, biodiversity policy, and the social, ethical and policy context of conservation. He continues to publish on the roles of carnivores in policing ecosystems and the conflict between the biocentric and anthropocentric (development-focused) poles in conservation.
He was named by Audubon Magazine in 1998 as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century, is a recipient of the National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Achievement Award for science, the recipient of the Conservation Medal for 2007 from the Zoological Society of San Diego and was in the first class of recipients of The Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award in 2009.
Harvey Locke is a conservationist, writer, and photographer. He is a recognized global leader in the field of parks, wilderness, and large landscape conservation. Harvey is a Strategic Advisor to the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and Vice President for Conservation Strategy at the WILD Foundation located in Boulder, Colorado, USA. He served as President or Vice President of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society for 17 years and is currently its Senior Advisor, Conservation. He is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
A native of the Calgary-Banff area of Canada, Harvey is globally known for his work on wilderness, national parks and large landscape conservation from Yellowstone to Yukon and beyond. Named by Time Magazine as one of Canada’s leaders for the 21st century, he was recently awarded the Fred M. Packard International Parks Merit Award by the IUCN, a prestigious global award that recognizes his extensive conservation work.
Jens Wieting works with the BC chapter of the Sierra Club on protecting B.C.’s spectacular rainforest and fighting global warming. He focuses on developing and implementing the protection agreements for the Great Bear Rainforest, highlighting the importance of B.C.’s forests and urging the province to avoid fossil fuel expansion projects like pipelines, LNG terminals and coal mines. He studied land use planning at the Technische Universitaet Berlin, where he also worked for a land use planning office. Prior to coming to Canada, Jens worked as Tropical Forest Campaigner for German environmental organization Robin Wood, helping protect the rainforest of Indonesia. He also worked for a German development cooperation in Nicaragua to help conservation planning in Biosphere Reserve Bosawas, the largest tropical rainforest region of Central America. Jens has written numerous articles for Canadian and German newspapers about environmental issues.
Chris Darimont is an associate professor in UVic’s Geography Department, and a Hakai–Raincoast conservation scholar. His scholarly roots were established by earning a PhD in Evolution and Ecology from the Biology Department at the University of Victoria with Dr. Tom Reimchen, followed by postdoctoral opportunities at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he worked with ecologist Dr. Chris Wilmers. Chris learns from and works closely with conservation leaders from First Nations communities of coastal British Columbia. He serves as Director of Science for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
