Ethics and Communication in conservation research and practice WITHOUT GRANT CALL 2024

The importance of communication is increasingly recognized in biodiversity conservation. This is both to ensure transparency in biodiversity conservation efforts and to contribute to the success of conservation projects, especially when dealing with critically endangered species and with human/wildlife conflict interventions. One of the tasks of ethical analysis is precisely to assure the quality standards of communication in biodiversity conservation and to promote participatory approaches. To be successful, conservation efforts have to rely on a transparent ethical communication in order to include all the stakeholders and motivate those on whose actions conservation success is dependent. In this context, two main lines of investigation will be developed:

  1. a) dissemination and propagation of Ethical tools in conservation practice and research, including biobanking and new genomic strategies;
  2. b) media analysis and survey concerning public acceptance of new conservation strategies in conservation projects, including new biotechnologies.

Five publications related to the Research Topic for the candidate interview: 

  1. Jensen, K. K., Forsberg, E. M., Gamborg, C., Millar, K., & Sandøe, P. (2011). Facilitating Ethical Reflection Among Scientists Using the Ethical Matrix. Science and Engineering Ethics, 17(3), 425–445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-010-9218-2
  2. Minteer, B. A., & Collins, J. P. (2005). Ecological Ethics: Building a New Tool Kit for Ecologists and Biodiversity Managers. Conservation Biology, 19(6), 1803–1812. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00281.x
  3. Sandler, R. L., Moses, L., & Wisely, S. M. (2021). An ethical analysis of cloning for genetic rescue: Case study of the black-footed ferret. Biological Conservation, 257, 109118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109118
  4. Gregg Emily A., Kidd Lindall R., Bekessy Sarah A., Martin Jen K., Robinson Jennifer A., Garrard Georgia E. (2022). Ethical considerations for conservation messaging research and practice. People and Nature 4 (5), 1098-1112
  5. Bickford D., Posa Mary Rose C., Qie L., Campos-Arceiz A., Kudavidanage Enoka P. (2012). Science communication for biodiversity conservation. Biological Conservation 151,74-74

Contact person

Prof. Barbara De Mori

Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science (https://www.bca.unipd.it/)
University of Padova
tel.: +39-049-8274519
e-mail: barbara.demori@unipd.it