I thought a lot today about how I relate to conservation in the USA versus abroad. Conservation abroad seems so exotic to most people in my field, but in my exposure to it (including this summer) I have seen it is very similar to conservation in the United States. I don't mean that efforts aren't changed to fit the relevant context; I mean that, once you strip away this idea of the exotic and foreign, then it is equally as interesting and of vital importance as conservation anywhere. We shouldn't fetishize foreign conservation because 1) that's just another way of fetishizing foreign cultures and 2) that makes conservation in the USA seem less exciting and important. Conservation anywhere helps conservation everywhere. To be cliched: it's all one Earth and we're all working together.
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For the week I am in Bogota, I have been living with a family of biologists. The mother and father are both in the administration of the biology program at Universidad El Bosque and 2 of the 4 children also study biology. They definitely have very educated and wise opinions on the topics of wildlife conservation and sustainable development. So far in my conversations, nothing has surprised me about their perspectives. They seem to agree with the prevailing mentality in conservation that often more than half of conservation biology is not pure science but is helping people. It is great to meet people who care about conservation and think about it responsibly.
I am being careful to not have very many expectations. I have never been to Latin America before, I have never done prolonged field work before, and I have never done this kind of civic research. My expectation for myself is to have an open mind and a part of that, I believe, is leaving my expectations behind. I do not even have a project yet; it is purposefully open-ended so I can craft it on site once I get there. I don't know what to expect when I get to Colombia in 2 days and I am so very excited at that!
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Ben JohnsonI am a junior at Rice University majoring in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and minoring in Environmental Studies Archives
June 2017
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