The UCSB Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science invites all those interested to apply to participate in a specialist meeting on Advancing the Geographic Approach to Conservation. 

Application Deadline: October 15, 2024

Applications: All applicants are asked to fill out an Application Form that includes questions about your vision for advancing a geographic approach for conservation

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Motivation: 

Confronted by the effects of climate change, there is renewed interest in meeting the world’s conservation needs through global action, like the recent Kunming-Montreal agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030. While these targets are widely supported, many countries ultimately fail to reach them, in part because there is insufficient analytical support for the spatial land use planning needs at local levels. There is also often a disconnect between the geographic information produced by scientists and what is needed for decision making on the ground. Compounding these challenges are the multiple spatial planning goals that often must be simultaneously achieved (e.g., for biodiversity, carbon reductions, habitat restoration) across fragmented administration agencies. 

Over the past year, the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science has collaborated with conservation organizations from around the world to identify how a geographic approach that leverages GIScience can be developed and used to better support conservation goals. These discussions have highlighted the following: 

1.    The need to increase GIS capacity within resource constrained organizations, while identifying practices that are simultaneously effective and transferable across diverse organizations 

2.    The need to develop and integrate emerging geospatial technologies (e.g., GeoAI, drone and airborne sensing) to meet the varied needs of conservation organizations, while remaining sensitive to the unique ethical challenges of conservation  

3.    The need to create spatial data infrastructure and collaborative research approaches that support evidence-based and causal analysis of conservation programs enacted in changing environments

4.    The need to track the biodiversity and conservation impacts of private actors seeking to deploy natural capital accounting systems or comply with reporting requirements in new legislation

To begin to address these needs, and the many others not identified here, we invite colleagues working at the forefront of conservation and GIScience to join us for a two day, in-person meeting at the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science at UCSB in Santa Barbara, California. During this meeting, we will hold discussions and working sessions to  outline research priorities and collaborative programs for GIScience and conservation. Participants will be invited to contribute to the production of a white paper, collaborative grant development, envisioning training and education opportunities, and the planning of novel networking strategies. We anticipate the activities of the workshop to be the catalyst for a larger, programmatic effort to collaboratively develop GIScience for the conservation needs of the 21st century. 

Format of the Meeting

The workshop will be held December 6-7 2024, with working sessions scheduled for Friday, December 6th and Saturday, December 7th. Participants are invited to join a workshop dinner on Friday evening and an outdoor group activity on Saturday afternoon for further networking.

Meeting time will be used for collaboration. Workshop activities will include discussion and debate sessions, group breakouts for interactive participation and writing, and opportunities to share outcomes with the entire group. The intent is that all participants will co-author any products that result from the meeting, reflecting the collaborative orientation of the workshop.

We invite colleagues at all career stages, institutions, disciplinary backgrounds, genders, and ethnicities to apply. Applicants are asked to fill out an Application Form that includes a set of prompting questions about your vision for advancing a geographic approach for conservation before October 15, 2023. Responses will form the basis for participant selection. Support for travel and accommodations for approximately 20 attendees is anticipated. 

Further information about the specialist workshop will be posted on the website for the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science.