What is Coexistence?
Coexistence means different things to different people, but the definition we prefer is adapted from Pooley et al. (2020), who built on an earlier one proposed by Carter and Linnell (2016).
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"A sustainable though dynamic state, where humans and wildlife co-adapt to sharing landscapes. While some negative impacts on both people and wildlife are perhaps unavoidable, laws, policies and conservation interventions should attempt to minimise these. To ensure wildlife populations persist, but in socially and ethically legitimate ways, acceptable to local communities, where the risks are kept within tolerable levels, which are determined based on the local context”.
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While this may seem like a straightforward proposition, unpacking the various ideas embedded within this definition of coexistence to translating it into practice on the ground offers myriad challenges.
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Our Vision
To promote human-wildlife coexistence and a more holistic, inclusive and just approach to nature conservation.
Our Mission
To better understand, promote and mainstream a range of social, cultural, ecological interventions and institutions that enable coexistence through the minimisation of negative human-wildlife interactions and equitable sharing of costs and benefits.
Our Values
| We need to rethink privilege, normative ideas, and practices in conservation that we have accepted
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| We seek new pathways to learning, sharing, and living in shared spaces
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|Successful coexistence requires local empowerment through partnerships
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|Coexistence needs to be grounded in empathy, taking into account human rights and animal welfare