Assessing and Using Guidelines for Interacting with Faith-based Leaders and Communities

Because 84% of people in the world identify with religions and spiritualities, profess ultimate reasons for acting ethically, and can be mobilized to act, they may be helpful to marine conservationists in their research and... [ view full abstract ]

Because 84% of people in the world identify with religions and spiritualities, profess ultimate reasons for acting ethically, and can be mobilized to act, they may be helpful to marine conservationists in their research and practice projects. The Best Practices Project was initiated in March 2016 by the Religion and Conservation Biology Working Group of the SCB to solicit successful practices members have used when interacting with faith leaders and communities and to encourage all members to consider implementing these practices in their conservation projects. After an iterative process that included a Society-wide survey, various sessions at international and regional congresses, contextualized affirmations of specific guidelines by individual members based on their projects, and comments by faith leaders, the proposed Guidelines for Interacting with Faith-based Leaders and Communities when planning, initiating, implementing, closing, and following-up conservation projects was finalized in February 2018 and will be the focus of this session. Participants will (1) examine the proposed guidelines, (2) volunteer to share their experiences when implementing similar practices, (3) collaborate in developing a basic outline for case studies using the guidelines for presentation in a symposium to be proposed for the 2019 International Congress for Conservation Biology, and (4) recommend promising possibilities for disseminating the guidelines.