Doug Clark helps plan Looking Back, Looking Forward symposium

Environmental conservation and sustainability initiatives have often overlooked the impacts they can have on Aboriginal People and their livelihoods, and in so doing also miss the tremendous benefits that  those communities can offer such efforts. Globally, there is an emerging movement to re-orient conservation with indigenous communities as full and equal partners with researchers and other practitioners.

That’s why Douglas Clark, Centennial Chair in the School of Environment and Sustainability and Global Institute for Water Security member, is helping to organize Looking Back, Looking Forward, Topics in Indigenous Conservation Sciences.

The event, led in partnership with Edith Leoso of the Bad River Ojibwe Tribe and Jessie Conaway from the University of Wisconsin's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, takes place during the 2016 North American Congress for Conservation Biology (NACCB). It will be a day-long symposium and workshop focused on exploring the potential for collaboration between researchers and Aboriginal Peoples, and how working together can lead to innovations such as stronger policy and better educational methods.

Looking Back, Looking Forward takes place July 19 in Madison, WI, in the traditional territory of the Ho Chunk Nation. Please see the symposium’s poster for a complete schedule and further details. More information on the 2016 NACCB, visit their website.