“The years to come will be defined by struggles over our ability to imagine radically expanded horizons beyond the capitalist enclosure of the commons.”
Max Haven
Conservation futures is…
a collective dialogue exploring the multiple potential paths and transformations of practices and knowledge dedicated to conserving life on Earth;
a living archive of open-hearted conversations between humans, and with more-than-humans, to explore how entangled relationalities can emerge;
a playground for radically reimagining how to be part of and care for our environments otherwise;
a provocative and experimental journey fuelled by the power of collective imagination, courageous exploration and deep listening.
Our offerings
GEN In Conversations
Designed as part of the Conservation Futures Dialogues, these two facilitated public dialogues in the form of a special GEN in Conversation Series explore the possibilities, impossibilities and unknowns as we navigate conserving life on Earth in a time of breakdown and collapse.
Facilitated by Dr. Carolyn Finney, these public dialogues gather leading voices from the conservation field and beyond, to discuss, debate and delve deep into specific aspects of conservation justice, and the politics and poetics of reimagining its futures.
Part I: When Things Fall Apart
With Pat McCabe, Rachel Ikemeh & Neema P. Broome, moderated by Dr. Carolyn Finney
Wednesday 16th April | 5 – 6:30 pm CEST
Part II: Sites of Experimentation
With Molemo Moiloa, Jocelyn Imani & Ameyali Ramos, moderated by Dr. Carolyn Finney
Wednesday 7th May | 5 – 6:30 pm CEST
Re-landing: Writing Eco-connections within Speculative Frames - A Speculative Fiction Workshop
This workshop will explore the possibilities of ecological (re)connections through decolonial frameworks. Utilising speculative modes, it will draw on literature and traditional practices like storytelling and embroidery to imagine alternative ways of connecting with the land as it fights settler colonialism and endures the ramifications of postcolonialism.
Facilitated by Sanabel Abdel Rahman, the workshop will guide each participant through creating a literary or visual work that builds on relevant themes.
Read about the workshop in detail here.
Sowing Seeds - A Workshop Series on the Futures of Conservation
In collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, Sowing Seeds is a workshop series led by Dr Carolyn Finney conceived as a space for reflection and experimentation with MSc students and alumni from conservation and development programmes of the partner universities.
Read more about the workshop and dig into some of the students’ offerings here.
Rewor(l)ding Conservation - A Podcast Series
Rewor[l]ding Conservation: Dialogues to Reimagine our Planet’s Futures is a podcast series where we peel back the layers of power, practice, and knowledge production systems around the landscape of conservation.
Inviting in grassroots activists, indigenous leaders, donors, thinkers & artists, we listen for what conservation becomes when justice is at its heart — and what it reveals, in a time of collapse, when things fall apart.
Listen to the episodes here.
The Context
“At the start of the third millennium, the British Empire has long since been swept away, but colonial conservation ideas remain. In some cases they have changed; but many are remarkably intact. Does decolonization have any significance for conservation? If so, how does conservation thinking and practice need to change to take account of a post-colonial world?”
William M. Adams and Martin Mulligan
The field of conservation seems to be in a time of Gramscian ‘interregnum’: a moment of crisis where the old is dying while the new cannot yet be born.
The need to decolonise conservation practices, policies and institutions is increasingly recognised. Attempts to achieve this have mostly relied on simplistic and dualistic readings colliding and counterposing the bottom-up to the top-down, the Global North to the Global South, the grassroots to the donor.
Yet, lived realities of power differentials often describe a much more complex and diverse cartography of positions, dispositions, agencies, opportunities and constraints of both human and more-than-human beings.
Moving away from this impasse and adopting a nuanced understanding of actors and relationships allows for a more sophisticated conversation, the recalibration of outworn dynamics, and the creation of unexpected possibilities.
Conservation Futures is a provocative and experimental journey which moves beyond the entrenched North-South and donor-beneficiary dichotomies to examine complexities and explore emergence together.
The intentions
Conservation Futures aims at changing the frame of conversations in conservation by enabling:
- Self-Reflection: Creating the conditions for conservation actors to deeply re-examine and question their roles and the power dynamics that shape their practices, fostering a culture of listening and awareness, engaging with new insights, also beyond the human.
- Collective Dialogue: Creating safe, respectful spaces for open conversations that bridge divides, allowing diverse stakeholders to sit with differences and proximities and share experiences, worldviews and aspirations.
- Shared Imagining: Collaboratively envisioning a future where conservation is rooted in justice and equity, integrating the wisdom of all voices, particularly those historically marginalised.
The method
“How can people feel that they can have agency as a collective body when they don’t know the collective body yet?”
Jeanne van Heeswijk
Collective imagination is a powerful tool at our disposal. Yet imagination is a muscle that needs time, space and practice.
Conversation Futures builds an open playground where diverse actors in the field of conservation gather to radically re-envision how to steward our planet otherwise. Our inquiry also allies with and draws from artistic methodologies and creative practices that have long been exploring how to sensitively listen to the learnings that both indigenous cosmologies and non-human life can offer.
During the first stages of our inquiry (2024-2025) we will:
- Carry out interviews: These heartfelt, in-depth conversations with a wide array of actors explore their specific stories and visions for decolonized conservation.
- Host public dialogues: These dynamic, critical and inspiring discussions will address issues like conservation finance and community-led practices, as well as exploring creative methodologies to develop mutualities
- Organise workshops: These transformative workshops offer participants opportunities to envision collaborative and actionable pathways towards a just conservation future.
- Harvest Knowledge: Using a ‘harvesting’ approach to both document insights and celebrate the collective wisdom and creativity that emerges from our dialogues.
who is behind it
Conceptual & research leads: Dr Carolyn Finney & Akshay Chettri
Curatorial & support leads: Emily Caruso, Francesca Masoero & Youssef Rochdane
Podcast lead: Fayçal Lahrouchi
The CFD was launched in 2025 with funding from the Darwin Initiative.
