Call for contribution: Special session on inclusive governance planning at IMCC6

Current interest in area-based conservation alongside coastal communities reflects both the recognition that past conservation activities have marginalized coastal people, and insights that working with communities can lead to better conservation outcomes. However, partly because of the neo-colonial legacy of conservation as well as the sometimes-diverging interests of conservation and local communities facing global change, conflict between conservation and communities persist. This symposium will explore the range of factors that contribute to successful or failed collaborations between conservation groups and local communities. Special focus will be on contrasting initiatives where conservation planning has been dictated "top-down" with conservation planning that has been organized "bottom-up," and in both cases examine how they have led to either positive or negative consequences for conservation and community wellbeing.

This session will serve as a capstone event for an emerging working group interested in governance processes that promote effective ocean management to achieve both conservation and social goals. The Ocean Frontier Institute's program "Informing Governance Responses in a Changing Ocean" organized the working group, and sees IMCC as ideal platform to increase its global scope and membership. From the lessons learned from the working group and the IMCC symposium, the organizers will lead a paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal, with a focus on coastal planning under global change to simultaneously meeting conservation and social objectives.

Special Symposium (open) - SSO-06 Conservation with Communities: Inclusive Governance Planning to Achieve Social and Environmental Objectives

Gerald Singh (Memorial University, Canada)

Ratana Chuenpagdee (Memorial University, Canada)

To submit the abstract for this session, visit the IMCC website. The  abstract submission deadline is February 24.