scholarly journals Pathways to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Marine Science and Conservation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaili Johri ◽  
Maria Carnevale ◽  
Lindsay Porter ◽  
Anna Zivian ◽  
Melina Kourantidou ◽  
...  

Marine conservation sciences have traditionally been, and remain, non-diverse work environments with many barriers to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). These barriers disproportionately affect entry of early career scientists and practitioners and limit the success of marine conservation professionals from under-represented, marginalized, and overburdened groups. These groups specifically include women, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). However, the issues also arise from the global North/South and East/West divide with under-representation of scientists from the South and East in the global marine conservation and science arena. Persisting inequities in conservation, along with a lack of inclusiveness and diversity, also limit opportunities for innovation, cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and effective implementation of conservation and management policies. As part of its mandate to increase diversity and promote inclusion of underrepresented groups, the Diversity and Inclusion committee of the Society for Conservation Biology-Marine Section (SCB Marine) organized a JEDI focus group at the Sixth International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC6) which was held virtually. The focus group included a portion of the global cohort of IMCC6 attendees who identified issues affecting JEDI in marine conservation and explored pathways to address those issues. Therefore, the barriers and pathways identified here focus on issues pertinent to participants’ global regions and experiences. Several barriers to just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive conservation science and practice were identified. Examples included limited participation of under-represented minorities (URM) in research networks, editorial biases against URM, limited professional development and engagement opportunities for URM and non-English speakers, barriers to inclusion of women, LGBTQ+, and sensory impaired individuals, and financial barriers to inclusion of URM in all aspects of marine conservation and research. In the current policy brief, we explore these barriers, assess how they limit progress in marine conservation research and practice, and seek to identify initiatives for improvements. We expect the initiatives discussed here to advances practices rooted in principles of JEDI, within SCB Marine and, the broader conservation community. The recommendations and perspectives herein broadly apply to conservation science and practice, and are critical to effective and sustainable conservation and management outcomes.

2020 ◽  
Vol 189 (10) ◽  
pp. 1030-1032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Y Johnson ◽  
Helen B Chin

Abstract Scientific conferences provide attendees opportunities to network, share research, learn new skills and ideas, and initiate collaborations. Conference attendance is especially important for students and early-career researchers who are establishing their research careers or looking for jobs. However, attending conferences can be expensive, and the high cost of conference attendance might hit students and early-career researchers the hardest. According to a new member survey from the Society for Epidemiologic Research, early-career members are more racially and ethnically diverse than senior members, meaning that reducing financial barriers to conference participation might be an important consideration for increasing diversity among conference attendees. In this commentary, we discuss how choice of conference location—choosing less expensive cities nearer to more Society for Epidemiologic Research members—could reduce financial and other barriers to conference attendance for all members and improve diversity and inclusion in the Society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Aylesworth ◽  
Ratanawaree Phoonsawat ◽  
Pholphisin Suvanachai ◽  
Amanda C. J. Vincent

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. S. Galil ◽  
R. Danovaro ◽  
S. B. S. Rothman ◽  
R. Gevili ◽  
M. Goren

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Geldmann ◽  
Helena Alves-Pinto ◽  
Tatsuya Amano ◽  
Harriet Bartlett ◽  
Alec P. Christie ◽  
...  

AbstractConservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on delivering robust answers to reducing human impacts on nature. To explore how the field might have changed during the past two decades, we analyzed 3,245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has been running every year since 2000, aims for global representation by providing bursaries to early-career conservationists from lower-income countries, and has never had a thematic focus, beyond conservation in the broadest sense. We found that the majority of submissions to SCCS were based on primary biological data collection from local scale field studies in the tropics, contrary to established literature which highlights gaps in tropical research. Our results showed a small increase over time in submissions framed around how nature benefits people as well as a small increase in submissions integrating social science. Our findings also suggest that students and early-career conservationists could provide pathways to increased availability of data from the tropics and for addressing well-known biases in the published literature towards wealthier countries. We hope this research will motivate efforts to support student projects, ensuring data and results are published and made publicly available.


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