Advanced Introduction to Community-based Conservation

by Fikret Berkes

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Professor Fikret Berkes provides a unique introduction to the social and interdisciplinary dimensions of biodiversity conservation. Examining a range of approaches, new ideas, controversies and debates, he demonstrates that biodiversity loss is not primarily a technical issue, but a social problem that operates in an economic, political and cultural context. Berkes concludes that conservation must be democratized in order to broaden its support base and build more inclusive constituencies for conservation. Key features Taking an interdisciplinary social science approach that includes conservation science concepts, this Advanced Introduction will benefit students of environmental studies, geography, ecology and conservation. It will also be a useful resource for conservation organizations.

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 19, 2021

About the author

Dr. Berkes is an applied ecologist by background and works at the interface of natural and social sciences. He joined the University of Manitoba in 1991 as the Director of NRI, a position he occupied until 1996. He has served as the President of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (1996-98) and as the leader of a number of research groups. He has devoted most of his professional life to investigating the relations between societies and their resources, and to examining the conditions under which the "tragedy of the commons" may be avoided. He works on theoretical and practical aspects of community-based management, co-management, and traditional knowledge. His publications include the books, Sacred Ecology (Routledge, 2008), Breaking Ice (U Calgary Press, 2005), Navigating Social-Ecological Systems (Cambridge U Press, 2003), and Managing Small-Scale Fisheries (IDRC, 2001). See his list of publications and downloadable PDFs elsewhere on this web site. Dr. Berkes holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair (2002) and the title of Distinguished Professor (2003).


Dr. Berkes' main area of research is the commons, with current emphasis on adaptive co-management, complex systems/resilience, and indigenous knowledge. He works with Masters and PhD students who have an interdisciplinary orientation and an interest in combining social and ecological perspectives. Several of his national and international team projects involve NRI students. Five such projects were in progress in the past year: the SSHRC project, "Community-based resource management in a multi-level world", SSHRC/CURA project, "Protected area creation, culture and development at the Cree community of Wemindji, James Bay, Quebec" (with C. Scott, McGill, PI); the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) project, "Community-based conservation and UNDP Equator Initiative cases", the CIDA project, "Building environmental governance capacity in Bangladesh" (with C.E. Haque, NRI, PI); the Natural Resources Canada project, "Adaptation as resilience building: a policy study of climate change vulnerability and adaptation on the Canadian Prairies" (with H. Venema, IISD, PI).