Through the Eyes of Wildlife: Single and Multi-Species Approaches to Conservation
Amy Vedder, McCluskey Fellow and Lecturer, Yale School of the Environment
Dr. Vedder has done extensive research on the conservation of wildlife and wildlands. She has had decades of experience working internationally at the intersection of wildlife and human interests. If you’re interested in species conservation and how conservation efforts have evolved over time, you should check out this seminar.
— Lizzy Schattle, MESM 2021, Forest Sustainability Fellow
Forest Sustainability Fellowship Program Speaker
Abstract
Modern conservation efforts have evolved from a focus on game species to endangered species to ecological communities and ecosystems and now to landscapes. In this evolution, species have played differing—and often diminishing—roles in conservation planning and implementation. Dr. Vedder will share her experience regarding species conservation, derived from her field research and NGO program leadership. She will highlight the roles that species continue to play: in particular, how the relationships between wildlife and people of different cultures and experiencing different impacts importantly inform effective conservation efforts. Dr. Vedder examines these issues from a long-term practitioner’s perspective, addressing human interests at local, national, and international scales.
Bio
Dr. Vedder works in applied conservation, integrating ecological and social science as a basis for conserving wildlife and wildlands. She has conducted ecological research, launched field conservation projects, managed large in situ programs, consulted for the Global Environment Facility & USAID, and served in senior positions at the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Wilderness Society. Dr. Vedder teaches in the graduate program of the Yale School of the Environment, focusing on the practice of international conservation. Among publications are the critically acclaimed book In the Kingdom of Gorillas, and African Rainforest Ecology and Conservation (co-editor) published by Yale University Press.
