Our goal is to bring compassion for individuals into conservation decision-making and to shift conservation practices from a species-centric approach to one that values individual lives and their intrinsic worth and rights.
How we work
UTS Centre for Compassionate Conservation (CfCC) works across four domains: research, capacity building, stakeholder and community engagement and policy.
Rigorous research
- Expanding the knowledge and practical application of compassionate conservation principles
- Improving the wellbeing of non-humans through reimagined conservation practice
- Supporting and promoting transdisciplinary academic research that engages with contemporary policy debates in critical and innovative ways
- Advancing the scope and effectiveness of compassionate conservation
Capacity building
- Informing and enabling land managers to use alternative approaches for better conservation and welfare outcomes
- Enabling community and advocacy groups to communicate effectively about compassionate conservation and coexistence
- Creating new teaching and learning programs that inspire new generations of conservationists who are committed to ethical and inclusive practices
Stakeholder and community engagement
- Raising community awareness of compassionate conservation principles through workshops, seminars, and educational materials
- Fostering public demand for improved conservation and welfare outcomes
- Shifting conservation debates on the management of pests, resources, and systems onto firm ethical and compassionate grounds
- Inspiring grassroots compassionate conservation activities
- Increasing awareness and support for compassionate conservation practices among stakeholders
- Facilitating dialogue between stakeholders to find solutions to seemingly intractable environmental problems
- Listening to and respecting voices of First Nations peoples, including the use of decolonial methodologies
- Supporting compassionate conservation campaigns that raise public awareness of peaceful approaches to cohabiting with wildlife
- Facilitating national and international collaborations that explicitly address the welfare and conservation of non-humans
Policy, management and legislation
- Working with policymakers to develop and implement laws and regulations that reflect compassionate conservation principles
- Informing effective lobbying by NGOs and political groups to change government policy
- Translating peer-reviewed research into real-world impact in practice
Our approach
The approach of CfCC is grounded in academic research and training, policy development, and community advocacy.
- We challenge conservation norms, establishing an evidence base that invites others to think differently about the future of global conservation efforts.
- We welcome outliers who seek to work at the forefront of compassion-led change and create more-than-human solutions to conservation and wildlife challenges.
- We sit with complexity, envisioning solutions to contemporary conservation issues that goes beyond the binary.
- We work from theory to practice, grounding our research in established methodologies.
- We collaborate, combining our expertise in conservation science with transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral expertise both within and beyond the academy.
Who we work with
As a transdisciplinary research centre, our work draws on expertise and research spanning the ecological and social sciences, ethics, philosophy, economics, politics, justice, history, psychology, human geography, and the arts.
We collaborate broadly with academics, non-government organisations, land managers, community groups, and government agencies around the world to design novel solutions for human–non-human flourishing.
We work across a wide range of sectors, including conservation, environmental and wildlife management, animal welfare, veterinary practice, agriculture, environmental law, and natural resource management.
We attract:
- researchers and academics, including conservationist scientists and ecologists, veterinary scientists, and transdisciplinary practitioners such as systems thinkers and designers
- postgraduate students from a range of disciplines
- funders and donors, including philanthropists, animal lovers, wildlife conservationists and members of the public who care about more-than-humans.
Connect and support
Whether you are a researcher, policymaker, educator, or concerned citizen, your support and involvement are critical. We would love to hear from you. Contact us at compassionateconservation@uts.edu.au.
Donations to help drive our research and advocacy are welcome. Donate via giving to UTS.