Reconciling Nature Conservation and Human Well-Being Goals in Agro-Forest Landscapes of Northeast India

On August 19, join the Institute for Agroecology for an enlightening discussion titled "Reconciling Nature Conservation and Human Well-Being Goals in Agro-Forest Landscapes of Northeast India."⁠

⁠Human well-being goals are intricately linked to nature conservation. Across the globe, more than 1.5 billion people directly depend on natural ecosystems for their lives and livelihoods. The hills of Northeast India have extensive agro-forest landscapes that are owned and managed by local tribal communities. These landscapes are a mosaic of settled cash crop plantations, shifting agriculture, and forest ecosystems. The speakers will provide an overall picture of these social-ecological systems, based on their efforts towards documenting the biodiversity they hold, and examining the complexities of people-nature relationships and dependencies. They will discuss how they use this information to collaborative devise and implement interventions that support biodiversity conservation while improving people's wellbeing.⁠

The speakers, Divya Vasudev and Varun Goswami, are the co-founders of Conservation Initiatives and bring over a decade of experience working with communities in Northeast India's agro-forest landscapes. They are dedicated to integrating scientific knowledge into conservation decisions to protect wildlife and enhance local livelihoods. They are co-investigators in the closely-related research project by Anaka Aiyar (UVM Assistant Professor at the UVM Department of Community Development and Applied Economics), which is one of the six projects funded through our “Community-Engaged Research in Agroecology and Food Systems” small grants.⁠

Join us virtually or in-person in Leahy 102 (105 Carrigan Drive Burlington VT). Virtual registration here: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdOGrqzMuHNXRmzTzKiDpRWmcbAVp73KC#/registration

About Conservation Initiatives: Conservation Initiatives is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to science-based conservation of threatened wildlife and their habitats, conservation-friendly rural livelihood development, and sustaining positive human–nature relationships into the future.