Advancing Conservation in a Social Context (ACSC) Overview
Conservation of the world’s ecological resources is one of the world’s major sustainability challenges. Conservation is essential to secure the ecological foundations of human well being, but it is not without its costs. Locally, there can be trade-offs between conservation and livelihood activities; regionally, there can be complex trade-offs between conservation and other social or political agendas. While conservation often makes sense in the long run and at global scales, the cost to local and current generations of implementing conservation activities is often too high.
Advancing Conservation in a Social Context (ACSC) examines the nature of trade-offs at different scales (local, national, regional, and global) and the mechanisms and institutions needed to redistribute costs and benefits so that socially beneficial conservation can occur. It does so through an examination of conservation in three national contexts (Tanzania, Peru, and Vietnam), and through a ‘global’ research agenda that examines a broader set of international conservation actors and sociopolitical forces. It is a five-year interdisciplinary research initiative funded by the MacArthur Foundation through a grant to the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University. ACSC involves collaborators from the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, University of Georgia, and academic institutions in the three partner countries.