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Each year, the CCC funds Fellows to work on projects both in the US and internationally. Bringing together Fellows from different countries and contexts creates an ideal learning environment that leverages the unique experiences, perspectives, and knowledge each Fellow brings to bear. Together, Cohort 15 Fellows will advance culturally relevant conservation by ensuring local participation in decision-making. Together, we will create productive platforms for people to have a voice in stewarding their local places, finding common ground among many different values. And together, we will reflect on these projects, unpacking what they can teach us both about the conditions that foster success and as well as those that can lead to failure.
Cohort 15 consists of 16 Fellows pursuing 5 conservation projects working with communities in 4 countries. Some of the underlying themes that tie their projects together include: incorporating different knowledge systems into land stewardship; intergenerational aspects of land stewardship systems; and the role of women as stewards of the landscape.
We are grateful to Warner College’s Diversity and Inclusion program for their support of Cohort 15.
Brazilian socioenvironmental practitioner pursuing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology at the University of Florida
Geographer, assistant professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University and co-Director of the Just Social-Ecological Transformations in Latin America Program.
Community Association of the Waimiri Atroari People
Community territorial systems, as the ones of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, can offer profound critiques and inspiration to the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the unsustainable trajectory of the current civilization model. Rooted in reciprocal relationships with landscape and living beings, Indigenous worldviews, governance and management practices and sociocultural systems can embody principles of care, responsibility, and interdependence that contrast with extractive models driving socioenvironmental degradation, what partially explains the conservation indexes attached to these territories and makes recognizing Indigenous autonomy and not only a matter of reparation justice, but a fundamental strategy for addressing global crises.
The Waimiri Atroari People inhabit the lowland “terra firme” rainforests of the Rio Negro basin and have a long history of defending their existence, ways of life and territory from outsiders’ resources exploitation and implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects, maintaining one of the lowest deforestation rates in the Indigenous Lands from Brazilian Amazon in a territory larger than 25,000 km2. This collaborative project built with Waimiri Atroari Community Association focuses on supporting the Waimiri Atroari people in Brazil’s Amazon in strengthening their governance in a context of generational transition, facilitating community-led discussions and exchange experiences on territorial and environmental governance, including land rights, food sovereignty systems and knowledge systems, from a biocultural conservation perspective.
The Network currently brings together over 30 diverse stakeholders and stakeholder groups, including environmental and education non-profits, rural ejido communities and private landowners, state and federal government agencies, Protected Area managers, industry, and schools and universities across Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas. We envision an ecologically and economically thriving, climate-resilient region of northeast Mexico with prosperous rural communities, healthy landscapes, and flourishing biodiversity.
As a Network, we are working to co-develop ambitious conservation, restoration, and sustainable development goals that would not be achievable through isolated projects, facilitate partnerships to deliver conservation success, and more effectively mobilize funding and resources and channel these resources in ways that most effectively address the conservation challenge. The Network’s goals include planting at least 500,000 native agaves with at least 39 ejidos and private landowners; restoring at least 192,000 acres of degraded land for native habitats and sustainable productive activities; supporting 20 community nurseries for production of native agaves and other economically-important plants; developing 40 community-based green businesses based on the sustainable use of agaves and other natural resources; and training at least 500 rural community members in regenerative and sustainable agriculture and ranching practices.
Our CCC Fellows project is designed to build capacity of the Network, including enhancing diversity and equity measures and participatory processes within the Network; strengthening accountability mechanisms; establishing a communications plan for communication into, out of, and within the Network; and further developing coordinated on-the-ground actions across the Network.
Tropical Conservation & Development Program (University of Florida)
School of Natural Resources and Environment (University of Florida)
Colorado State University Extension Agent, specializing in agricultural production systems. She is leading work in revegetation of center pivots in the San Luis Valley, CO.
An art and science teacher, rancher, and member of the newly reformed Conejos Conservation Board.
Madeline and Angie are working with their communities to support the newly reformed Conejos Conservation District. Their project focuses on conducting a needs assessment to identify the primary soil and water conservation issues impacting Conejos county producers. These results will be formalized and shared in the form of a strategic plan for the newly reformed Conejos County Conservation District. The needs assessment will consider trans-boundary issues and will identify and collaborate with Taos County entities in northern NM where many of the families ranch to capture historically marginalized perspectives.
Carolyn Coyle is a Ph.D candidate at Colorado State University, whose research documents songbirds as potential pollinators across North America . Carolyn brings a strong background in collaborative research and is eager to gain further experience in community engagement, biodiversity monitoring, and urban conservation as a Center for Collaborative Conservation Fellow.
Kate is an Environmental Planner with the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department. Her work focuses on the Nature in the City program which aims to increase habitat and biodiversity in an urban setting while also providing equitable access to nature for all community members.
Liba Pejchar is a Professor in the Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Department at Colorado State University whose work primarily focuses on biodiversity and ecosystem services in human-dominated landscapes. Dr. Pejchar and her students have engaged with the Nature in the City Program since its inception, co-developing monitoring protocols to assess bird and butterfly communities.
Jasmine Nelson-Olivieri (she/they) primarily focuses on relationships between socio-demographics and ecological attributes within urban settings, such as greenspace, noise, and urban heat islands. With a background in spatial and qualitative analyses using equity lenses, they are excited to continue to do ecological research that directly benefits and works within the local community through this work with the Center for Collaborative Conservation.
Urbanization is a leading driver of land use change globally. Mid-sized cities, such as Fort Collins, are often expanding more rapidly than large metropolitan areas, but the paths forward for sustaining biodiversity for nature and people in these spaces are less well understood. In the case of cities with urban growth boundaries, providing housing and services for a growing population can result in higher density development and the loss of existing formal and informal green spaces. Collaborating with local communities to enhance the biodiversity value of neighborhood open spaces is a promising tool for sustaining plant and animal communities, and access to nature, within city boundaries.
In recognition that a growing population could lead to the loss of green space, with consequences for nature and people, community concern prompted the City of Fort Collins to launch the Nature in the City (NIC) Program in 2015, which has focused on increasing connectivity, fostering stewardship, and providing access to experiences and functional habitat for people, wildlife, and plants. NIC works in alignment with goals set by the community, the City Council, and the City’s Strategic Plan. To date, NIC has funded 82 community-driven restoration projects through the NIC grants program. Our team’s goal is to understand what contributes to project success and longevity, identify coverage gaps, and evaluate biodiversity outcomes to ensure the NIC program’s long-term effectiveness. We further aim to explore how community and city perspectives on project success align or diverge. Findings from this project will help inform future investments in nature and people in the Fort Collins community, and have the potential to resonate globally, inspiring governments and community members of mid-sized cities worldwide facing similar growth and urbanization pressures.
Dario has a transdisciplinary background. He holds a degree in Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Social Development, and two Master’s, one in Ecosystems Management and another in International Rural Development. He has participated in collaborative research on protected area management, rural development, and food sovereignty, primarily in Mexico.
Originally from Bolivia, Andrea was originally trained as an agronomist with a personal and professional commitment to social-ecological wellbeing in Latin America. At CSU, she leads the TRILLAR Lab, which stands for “Transformations of Rural and Indigenous Livelihoods, Lands, and Autonomous Regimes,” and is the co-director of the “Just Social-Ecological Transitions in Latin America” program (JSET). She is also a member of the board of Directors of the Institute for the Rural Development of South America and Co-Chair of Research of the Llanos de Moxos Working Group (llanosdemoxos.org).
Ed is an ecosystem scientist working in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems from an interdisciplinary approach, linking physical and ecological sciences and addressing scales from single-cell microbiology to integrated watershed analyses of coupled human and natural systems. Ed has been collaborating with AMUPROLAGO for almost 20 years around a long-term ecological research program centered on the conservation of Lake Yojoa.
Lake Yojoa is the biggest freshwater lake in Honduras, making this the main reason for it being the first Protected Area in the country. Over time, different activities have been developed, altering the ecosystem with effects on ecosystem services, the development of local livelihoods, and, as a consequence, local well-being. A clear example of these adverse effects on society and ecosystem health is the case of the big net-pen aquaculture industry that was in the lake, being the main contributor to the eutrophication process.
This eutrophication process and its contributors were identified by CSU Hall’s lab and team, who have maintained a long-term collaborative relationship with local actors and institutions. As a result of these collaborative findings, the government banned aquaculture in the lake but also led to the national government promoting the area as a Biosphere Reserve, which may reinforce conservation restrictions.
Hence, the project identifies this conjunctural moment as an opportunity to continue and reinforce collaboration with local actors and institutions. Through this collaborative project, with AMUPROLAGO as the main local institutional collaborator, our objective is to increase support for sustainable local livelihoods and the consideration of local perspectives in conservation planning and management instruments. This will be achieved by elucidating local actors’ perspectives on conservation, their relationships with Lake Yojoa and its surrounding ecosystems, and their participation in decision-making processes related to conservation initiatives.
AMUPROLAGO (Asociación de Municipios del Lago de Yojoa y su Área de Influencia) is a local NGO, with a steering committee structured like a mancomunidad (i.e., commonwealths or consortium of municipalities) of 7 municipalities within the Lake Yojoa watershed.
Jacqueline is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, working on the convergence between biodiversity conservation, cultural heritage on multi-use landscapes, and their impact on livelihoods. She is the founder and director of El-Koony Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Kenya, developing a research center that is addressing mountain social-ecological systems, through research, observations, capacity building and connections to policymakers for the Mount Elgon region.
Stephen is a plant ecologist currently seeking to pursue a master’s degree in plant biology and botany. He has been working with Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI), as an assistant research scientist, and he is also a professional technical trainer in science education.
Philip is an Indigenous Community Leader who has worked as a local community guide for 20 years. He founded Mt Elgon Porters Association, a community organization of local and indigenous porters and guides, who arrange hikes and trips up Mount Elgon, and the forest trails, for visitors and tourists. He has been an environmental conservation champion and advocate for the protection, restoration and conservation of the Mount Elgon ecosystem forests and wildlife.
The Mount Elgon transboundary ecosystem, located on the Kenya-Uganda border, is known for its high biodiversity value comprising several endemic and endangered flora and fauna species found in its forests and surrounding farmlands. It is currently experiencing the negative effects of climate change. Classified as exhibiting moderate to high climate vulnerability, the ecosystem’s ecology and indigenous inhabitants are increasingly vulnerable to climate change due to high levels of multidimensional poverty, gender inequality, environmental degradation, over-reliance of the economy on rain-fed agriculture, high level of water scarcity and mismanagement of water resources and land fragmentation. The Sabaot and Ogiek indigenous communities live within the Mount Elgon forest ecosystem, and have utilized plant resources for centuries, yet their ethnobotanical knowledge remains largely undocumented.
This project seeks to collaborate with the Sabaot and Ogiek communities, to document the traditional ecological knowledge of the ethnobotanical harvests of plant species for nutrition, health, and well-being, for long-term conservation and climate change adaptation. Information gathered will be utilized for co-developing a range of skills, training e.g. ethnobotanical certification, and mentoring that will support the communities’ cultural heritage enterprises such as mushroom foraging, naturopathy, to enhance their socio-cultural and economic wellbeing.
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