International Symposium 'Living with Biodiversity: People, Knowledge, Politics'

In the context of the international Biodiversity year, the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group of Wageningen University, together with the Department of Sociology of Lancaster University and the London Natural History Museum, are organising an international symposium on 'Living with Biodiversity: People, Knowledge, Politics'.

Theme

Our relationship with biodiversity, through policy, through conservation or through engagement with nature is one that involves blurred boundaries between science, politics and lay knowledge. Humans interact with biodiversity in different arenas such as politics and decision making, natural history museums and botanical gardens and the generation of biodiversity data and databases. Each of these involves scientific and other knowledge and information and each involves non-scientific publics in different ways. This conference brings together international academics on the topic ‘living with biodiversity’. By focusing on interactions between knowledge, people, politics and biodiversity, this symposium aims to generate new ways of understanding involvement with nature and biodiversity and new perspectives on how to live with biodiversity.

Speakers

• Stephen Hinchliffe: Professor of the department of Geography, University of Exeter, United Kingdom


• Anna Lawrence: Head of Social Research, the United Kingdom Forestry Commission


• Jamie Lorimer: Lecturer, department of Geography, King’s College London


• Katja Neves: Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada


• Marleen Buizer: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Woodland and Forest Health, Murdoch University, Western Australia


• Rebecca Ellis: Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Lancaster, United Kingdom


• Morgan Meyer: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Center for Sociology of Innovation, Mines Paris Tech, France


• Bettina van Hoven: Assistant Professor Cultural Geography, University of Groningen, The Netherlands


• Katrhyn Yusoff: Lecturer, department of Geography, University of Exeter, United Kingdom


• Kezia Barker: Lecturer in Science and Environmental Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom


• Paul Voogt, Adjunct director Public Affairs, NCB Naturalis


• Esther Turnhout, Associate Professor, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University, the Netherland


• Johannes Vogel, Program Leader UK Biodiversity, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom


• Claire Waterton, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, United Kingdom 

Symposium program

Wednesday 22 September

12.00:   Lunch

13.00:   Introduction to the symposium 

• Esther Turnhout: Only what is counted counts? Representing biodiversity and its implications

13.30:   Key note lecture

• Steve Hinchcliffe: Living with Birds

14.45:   Tea

15.15:   Session 1: Conservation, politics, and knowing nature

• Jamie Lorimer: (Re)turn to the wild? The fraught biopolitics of European rewilding and cattle de-domestication


• Anna Lawrence: Habitat dynamics, policy dynamics: the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and forest removals on heathland


• Bettina van Hoven: ‘Knowing’ the Great Bear Rainforest: the roles of actors, values and knowledges in the management of Canada’s coastal temperate rainforest


• Claire Waterton: Title to be announced

17.15:   End of day

Thursday 23 September

08.30:   Coffee

09.30:   Session 2: Archives of knowledge and representation

• Katja Neves: The great botanical transformation - Beyond the Erudire Greenhouse and into the world


• Rebecca Ellis: Life forms and forms of life: breeding cryptic species and converting parataxonomists for global biodiversity


• Katrhyn Yusoff: Archives of life: banal violence and exuberant presence

11.00:   Coffee

11.30:   Session 3: Volunteers in biodiversity recording and conservation 

• Marleen Buizer: Public involvement in ecological restoration: volunteering for novel ecosystems or historical analogues?


• Morgan Meyer: Caring for weak ties - on the boundaries and partial connections between amateurs and professionals


• Kezia Barker: ‘Does it look like Madonna’s bra?’: Biosecurity surveillance and the construction of biological threat

13.00:   Lunch

14.00:   Session: The role of natural history museums

• Johannes Vogel: 21^st century Natural History – diverse, relevant and accessible


• Paul Voogt: Title to be announced

15.00:   Closing of the symposium, possibility for museum visit

Venue

The symposium is held in the auditorium of the Dutch natural history museum ‘Naturalis’. Naturalis is located near the railway station of Leiden. The Leiden Railway Station is well connected to Schiphol airport (20 minutes by train) and other major train stations in the Netherlands.

Adress Naturalis: Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden, Tel: 071 568 76 00, Fax: 071 568 76 66

Walking from the railway station to Naturalis will take about 10 minutes. Make sure to leave the station at the back side in the direction of the UMC hospital. The route to Naturalis is marked with signs. A map can be found on the museumwebsite www.naturalis.nl.

Organisers

• Esther Turnhout, Associate Professor, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands


• Johannes Vogel, Program Leader UK Biodiversity, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom


• Claire Waterton, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Registration

If you are interested in attending, please register at the symposium website. This website also contains more information about the symposium, including the theme, the program, abstracts and information about the speakers, the venue, and fees.

Alternatively, you can go to www.fnp.wur.nl and click on ‘Living with Biodiversity’ under calendar.