Deep and Meaningful: Conversations about Community-Centred Conservation

Wednesday 10th January, 9-11am (GMT) via Zoom.

‘Community engagement’ has become an essential focus for funders and NGOs alike – but what does meaningful community engagement look like? Why does it really matter? And how can we achieve it?

In this webinar, we’ll describe the successful approaches behind our deeply-engaged conservation work in Sumatra. Hosted by the Sumatran Orangutan Society in collaboration with Dr. Liana Chua, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and Dr. Darmanto Simaepa, Lead Environmental Anthropologist at the Sumatran Orangutan Society, we’ll explore ways we can make conservation work in the long term for the people living alongside the biodiversity and ecosystems we are striving to protect.

Using case studies and illustrated examples, we’ll demonstrate how environmental funders, and the frontline NGOs they invest in, can lay solid foundations for deep and long-lasting conservation impact through meaningful community engagement.

The presentations will:

• explore the balance between the appetite for scale and pace versus the need for depth and durability.
• share expert insight into transformational tools which can unite the goals of conservation and human wellbeing.
• share real-world examples of these tools and approaches in action.

The workshop will be a collaborative space to:

• explore how environmental funding and philanthropy can be structured to support the fundamental stages of community engagement (which are inherently qualitative and often difficult to measure).
• consider opportunities for philanthropy to create an enabling environment for the wide adoption of deep community engagement.
• collect insights and perspectives to create a best-practice toolkit for funders who want to invest in transformative community-led conservation programmes.

Sumatran Orangutan Society have over 20 years of experience in working with frontline partners to engage forest-edge communities, and the wider community in Sumatra, in conservation that supports people and their livelihoods as well as wildlife and ecosystems. We work closely with anthropologists to ensure the conservation methods we use are embedded within the community and lead to lasting change.

This will be an online event, taking place on Wednesday 10th January, 9-11am (GMT) via Zoom.