In June 2019, the University of Sheffield, one of the institutions involved in the CONVIVA – convivial conservation project, hosted a workshop bringing together diverse scholars working on political ecology in the global South and North.

Four researchers affiliated with CONVIVA, Wilhelm Kiwango from the University of Dodoma, Tanzania; Kate Massarella from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and Dan Brockington and Judith Krauss from the University of Sheffield, UK, presented ongoing work which explores different aspects of convivial conservation.

Some 30 participants discussed the viability of insurance schemes in communities living with lions, the social life of ideas in conservation, and the commensurability of convivial notions with Sustainable Development Goal 15: ‘Life on Land’.

This workshop marked the starting point for Wilhelm Kiwango’s one-month stay at the University of Sheffield to plan research activities which will develop and test ideas around convivial conservation in Tanzania. These activities, led by Mathew Bukhi Mabele and Wilhelm Kiwango, are additionally supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund. They will enable CONVIVA to work with communities in Tanzania who have experienced human-wildlife conflict with lions on co-developing ideas which put into practice the research project’s objectives of promoting co-existence, (bio)diversity and social justice.