Dana Conference
Mobile Peoples and Conservation: Crossing the Disciplinary Divide
Wadi Dana Nature Reserve, Jordan
3-7 April, 2002
A group of concerned professionals including social and natural scientists from all regions of the world met at Wadi Dana Nature Reserve, Jordan, 3-7 th April 2002, to consider a comprehensive approach to mobile peoples and conservation.
The term mobile peoples (i.e. pastoralists, hunter-gatherers, shifting agriculturalists and other peoples with dynamic regular changing patterns of land use) refers to a subset of indigenous and traditional peoples whose livelihoods depend on extensive common property use of natural resources over an area, who use mobility as a management strategy for dealing with sustainable use and conservation, and who possess a distinctive cultural identity and natural resource management system.
This conference of invited experts followed on from an open conference hosted in 1999 by the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford: Displacement, Forced Settlement and Conservation which identified a need to bridge disciplinary divides between social and natural scientists
.
On April 3, 2002, Her Royal Highness, Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan, gave a formal addressto open a conference called: "Mobile Peoples and Conservation: Crossing the Disciplinary Divide" held at Wadi Dana Nature Reserve, Jordan. The Royal Family of Jordan actively supports initiatives that focus on social change and environmental protection for the citizens of its country.
Out of this conference comes the " Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation". Mobile peoples and conservation agents have much to offer each other. Mobile peoples and biological resources of the world are facing dire pressure.
The conference was hosted by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan and organized by the Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, in collaboration with the: the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology(DICE), University of Kent at Canterbury; the World Commission on Protected Areas(IUCN); and the World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF).
Financial Support
The Conference Organisers would like to thank the following for their generous financial support:
Rural Livelihoods - Department for International Development (DFID), UK
Environment Policy Department - Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Institute of International Education (IIE)
The Ford Foundation
UNESCO
The Wenner-Gren Foundation
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) US