SCB : Thoughts from a conservation gathering

Thoughts from a conservation gathering: SCB Asia 2012.

At the onset I must emphasise that this piece does not intend to make a comment either on the Society for Conservation Biology that organized the Biodiversity Asia 2012, nor wildlife scientists; both have enabled me to learn in no small measure. My attempt is  merely to share questions which confronted me during the event, left me puzzled and at times, even disturbed.

One of the panel speakers, in his otherwise amazing talk, referred to ‘social scientists’ (I don’t quite agree with the term) role being that of raising ‘questions’ and not of providing ‘answers’. This was somewhat difficult to comprehend: On the one hand we talk of multi-disciplinary approach to conservation being the need of the hour and on the other we freeze our boundaries. Is this tantamount to throwing the ball in someone else’s court? Who then answers these questions put up by social scientists?

During a dinner conversation I shared, with a well-known wildlife scientist, details of a project involving wolves in Rajasthan that I was a small part of. He talked of his visit to the place and said he was stunned to listen to drivers and guides talk at length of tiger behavior and their identification of individual tigers and added that even scientists were not aware to this degree! This was a little difficult for me to digest and I recalled reading a piece by a friend which questioned the practice in vogue; that of information being data if seen by a scientist and anecdotal if seen by others! These drivers and guides accompany tourists on the jeeps (and canters) inside the National Park on a regular basis throughout the year excepting when the park is closed. Wasn’t it natural, I thought, given the situation that they have far more sightings of and time with tigers than many wildlife scientists?

I attended presentations where lot of what was said was fresh for me and some of it quite invigorating. However, I kept wondering why people put up formulae and references to their own academic papers in the power-points that accompanied their talks. Many, if not all, of these people would have had unique experiences and I would have been happy to listen to their stories and to see a small part of their world. These made me recall an email on a discussion group which questioned the practice of using references to one’s own publications as also an interesting article in The Telegraph which said while we refer to them as ‘power-point presentations’ they at times end up without making any point!  

This piece features in the Protected Area Update : Vol. XVIII No. 5 - October 2012 (No 99).

Thanks Pankaj.