Collaborations and Supporters of our work

Our aim is to identify ways to effectively integrate social sciences in biodiversity conservation policies in order to design more effective and equitable policy interventions. As part of this work we have launched a social science training programme including sessions on social impact assessment (SOCIAT tool), conducting interviews and a participatory social impact mapping methodology.

Management authorities

We have organised a number of workshops with management authorities of protected areas to identify optimum ways of capturing social impacts of biodiversity conservation policies.

Conservation NGOs

We are working with several conservation NGOs promoting the creation and use of methodologies based on social sciences and conservation humanities.

Researchers

Our social science tools have been developed following feedback from a number of leading researchers across Europe. These collaborations allowed us to ground our methodologies on cutting edge research across different disciplines.

EUROPARC Federation

We have supported the development of the Social Impact Assessment Tool (SOCIAT) since 2021. This tool is of significant interest to EUROPARC members, as it enables them to evaluate the social outcomes of their Protected Areas for local communities, fostering better-informed decision-making and effective management. The interest and engagement of our members for SOCIAT were actively expressed in the workshops we held for its development. EUROPARC Federation is currently leading the creation of the SOCIAT Training Course and its online environment in the European Nature Academy (ENA).

WWF-UK

A core part of WWF’s work is to provide evidence and solutions to addressing three key challenges:biodiversity loss, climate change and human wellbeing, termed the ‘Triple Challenge’. WWF’s UK Conservation Programmes team has been developing a novel approach to interrogate theTriple Challenge in three locations across Britain, known as Wholescape. As part of Wholescape,we have been collaborating with Professor Jones and her team at the University of Warwick,developing a framework to enable us to incorporate social capital assessment approaches intonatural capital evaluations. As such, we would be keen to continue working with Professor Jones and are excited to hear about thesocial science training programme. Through these training sessions, Professor Jones aims to facilitate the incorporation of social aspects into conservation programmes, which is crucial for WWF to meet its vision of a world where people and nature thrive together.