Enacting Transformation with Compassionate Conservation

            What does compassionate conservation have to do with transformation?

Showing compassion when you don’t have to takes courage, shows strength, and opens people to transformation.

            Perhaps though, we must always show compassion. If we cut ourselves off from the suffering and the lived experiences of another, we risk harming them and ourselves. Understanding what another feels and needs helps us align individual and society practices to goals that nurture others’ wellbeing.  Embracing the reality of how others live also means we are embraced in return with a sense of belonging and purpose.

            As Marc Bekoff, our most recent guest for our last Transformative Conservation Conversation, said:

Compassion is essential to solving evolutionary problems. If we are open [to others], it opens solutions.

            We certainly need an evolutionary spirit to transform society from the massive harm and ecosystem failure it inflicts.  We can infuse our conservation work with this spirit of compassion so that we might contribute to this transformation. Compassionate conservation means we work as peacefully as we can with each other and other species and do no harm, as Marc suggests, and I add, and if you fall short of that aim, do the least harm possible.

            To express compassion concretely we need to grow our understanding of the subjective experiences, thinking, motivations, and behavior of others. There is much work to do in this regard, and with scant resources and time, one conservationist participant during the conversation asked, “How do we study wild animals?

            Marc suggested:

            First observe. Then ask what they need to survive and survive well (I added that we can use the Five Domains Model of welfare to guide us in assessing the status of other species).

Studying other species may still be challenging for many.  Marc said we contribute to life helping other animals as much as possible and telling people about what you are doing. You may encounter a question like, "How can you be certain that a parrot experiences sadness and anxiety?"  He suggested responding with, “How do you know they don’t?

Being open and curious is a compassionate act towards all beings and opens the way transformation.

           If you’d like to be part of our next series on Transformative Conservation Conversations which start again in September, please sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social media. Our next guest will be Flavia Martins from the University of Pernambuco in Brazil. She will speak about Transformation and the Human Dimensions of Avian Conservation.

            In the meantime, you can access resources on Transformative Conservation along with past recordings.

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