ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING PEOPLE IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION: LESSONS FROM PRACTICE

This paper synthesises a number of meaningful practices and transferable insights from sessions at the 2019 National Biodiversity Conference on engagement in biodiversity conservation. To achieve this, a diverse selection of contributors working with youth, the business and farming sectors, local communities, the general public and society at large, reflected on their research, practice and understandings using Dunford's (2019) triadic framework of engagement-the Pocket, Head and Heart. Across the range of social groups and scales involved, and different methodological approaches employed in each contributor's work to date, the paper finds that an overarching principle to successfully progressing all engagement work is the value of developing collaborative relationships among stakeholders in order to help identify and achieve shared conservation goals. It concludes that co-designed and appropriately resourced all-island, place-based or sectoral approaches, together with citizen science and public education, accessible to everyone from youth to retirees, offer effective practices for growing and strengthening collaborative relationships. Key to these practices is authentic and meaningful engagement across age groups, communities, sectors, institutions and public authorities, in order to achieve the ultimate shared goal of biodiversity conservation for this and future generations.