Envision researchers are pleased to partner with IUCN to publish a summary of inclusive conservation approaches in the Denali region of Interior Alaska in the Panorama Solutions database. Panorama is a partnership initiative to document and promote examples of inspiring, replicable solutions across a range of conservation and sustainable development topics, enabling cross-sectoral learning and inspiration. See the solution here to learn more about social learning approaches in this beautiful, biodiverse region of Alaska.
Summary
The Denali region of Interior Alaska faces social and environmental pressures related to rapid landscape change. Although the communities there are tight-knit and linked by their shared connection to the area, local stakeholders can feel excluded from regional decision-making to address resource management issues. One potential pathway toward more inclusive decision-making is having residents learn from and adapt to one another in discussions about landscape change, thereby strengthening underrepresented voices through collective knowledge building. Community deliberation can be challenging to get started, but social learning is a conservation tool that can facilitate shared dialogue based on understanding the many and diverse values related to public land management through community deliberation. This solution is based on the concept of socially inclusive conservation, which aims to represent how people value nature to improve protected area management.
