IRES Track II: Multidisciplinary Training on Wildlife and Natural Resource Conservation From an Indigenous Perspective

Current breakthroughs in conservations sciences highlight the critical importance of integrating indigenous ways of knowing with western science in order to address the complex challenges of biodiversity conservation. There is a need to continually blend Indigenous ways of knowing with western scientific approaches to biodiversity conservation; however, Indigenous populations are severely underrepresented in scientific fields.

This project fills that need by providing opportunities for Native American students to use their backgrounds while gaining scientific expertise and global experience from other knowledge systems by participating in two, 13-day Advanced Study Institutes (ASI’s) in India that focus on providing hands-on and field-based research and learning opportunities in wildlife management and natural resource conservation sciences. Each ASI will have 10 U.S. graduate student participants and the same number of participants from India per year.

U.S. participants are limited to those who identify as Native American; to be chosen through a competitive process. The objective of the ASI’s is to provide Native American graduate students a global perspective and opportunities for professional growth through significant international collaborative research training, mentoring and networking in the fields of wildlife and natural resource conservation sciences.

The significance of this project is that it brings together Native American students, Indian students, and faculty from the US and India to provide a multi-cultural, dynamic learning experience designed to build the competencies of Native American students in social and biophysical sciences. This project also offers an opportunity for a traditionally underrepresented student population to work with fellow Indigenous students in building community and global awareness where their unique perspective is needed to help solve complex problems not only in the U.S. and in India, but worldwide.

The ASI’s will train students to conduct multidisciplinary research in an international context, building young professionals who will be at the forefront of world conservation and wildlife management sciences. These students will then be equipped to apply their scientific background to advance the health and welfare of Native American lands and people.

The research themes for the ASI’s are founded in social-ecological systems thinking and include social and biophysical sciences. The ASI’s will cover technical aspects, biophysical aspects and human dimensions. These include indigenous and participatory perspectives on conservation, conservation biology, landscape ecology, ecological restoration, and wildlife management.

The project provides the integration of science and technologies to consider both ecological principles and environmental conditions with the aim of balancing the needs of wildlife with the needs of the people. Students will study each of these themes first in the classroom and then through field experiences by leveraging the unique research facilities and field sites available through our partner institution, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), a global leader in applied research in wildlife management and natural resource conservation sciences.

Students will participate in a virtual conference and workshop before traveling to India. While in India, participants will be encouraged to participate in cultural experiences that will expose them to the history and culture of India, providing context to their work. A web-based virtual learning platform will be built for the ASIs and used for recruitment, participant networking, virtual conferences and workshops, and provide a summary of the activities and outcomes.

This project is jointly funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.