Talk title:
Navigating Conservation Genomics in East Africa: A Personal Journey, Practical Lessons, and a Vision for Equitable Science

Talk summary:
Generating relevant scientific knowledge is vital for the sustainable management and equitable use of natural resources. The ongoing genomics revolution, driven by advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, offers powerful tools to reverse biodiversity loss. Yet, the uptake of genomics in Africa, particularly in wildlife research, remains limited. While the lack of infrastructure and financial investment is often cited as the primary barrier, there is far less recognition of the critical role played by human leadership, creativity, and mentorship in building capacity from the ground up.

This presentation shares the journey of an early-career researcher in Kenya who, without dedicated funding or formal institutional structures, has combined personal research interests with a deep commitment to mentoring the next generation. It highlights how purpose-driven guidance, strategic partnerships, and locally relevant research projects have seeded a grassroots movement in conservation genomics.

Through stories of student-led projects, field improvisations, and intentional capacity-building efforts, this talk offers a candid reflection on how meaningful scientific progress can emerge even in resource-constrained settings. Rather than focusing on what others should do, it proposes what students, early-career scientists, and practitioners can do to drive change from within.

Bio of Speaker

Sammy Wambua

Marine Conservation Science

Dr. Sammy Wambua is a conservation genomics researcher based at Pwani University, Kenya, where he leads the Biosciences Research Centre (PUBReC). His work lies at the intersection of molecular biology, wildlife conservation, and environmental sustainability, with a focus on applying cutting-edge genomic tools to real-world conservation challenges in the Global South.

Dr. Wambua’s research spans coral reef restoration, sea turtle health, and wildlife population genetics. He has developed and applied field-ready molecular approaches to understand disease ecology in endangered turtles, uncover local adaptation in corals, and guide the design of effective conservation interventions. At the heart of his work is a commitment to building genomic research capacity in resource-limited settings through mentoring young scientists, establishing local infrastructure, and advocating for equitable access to technology and knowledge.

Beyond the lab, Dr. Wambua plays a strategic role in shaping conservation science across Africa. He actively mentors graduate students, facilitates hands-on bioinformatics training, and fosters partnerships that enable African institutions to take the lead in genomics-driven conservation. He is passionate about creating a future where conservation science is not only excellent but also inclusive, locally driven, and responsive to ecological and societal needs.

Through his participation in SCCS-Bng 2025, Dr. Wambua aims to share both the scientific insights and personal lessons from his journey—and to inspire a new generation of conservationists to think boldly, work collaboratively, and stay rooted in local contexts.

Talk title:
Climate Justice: Grounding Climate Action in Equity, Rights, and Resistance

Talk summary:
Climate change is not just an environmental challenge, it is fundamentally about equity, rights, and justice. Those who contribute the least to emissions are farmers, forest dwellers, artisans, migrants, and informal workers. But they are the ones most exposed to climate risks. Yet, mainstream climate action often sidelines their realities, focusing instead on markets, technology, and carbon accounting. This talk draws on over two decades of work at the intersection of community action, law, and policy to reframe climate leadership through the lens of justice. It will share stories from the ground where communities are resisting extractive models of development, reclaiming rights to land and water, and building climate-resilient futures rooted in dignity and sustainability.

Grounding climate action in equity and resistance is not optional; it is essential. Without justice, transitions risk widening inequalities. With justice, they can create pathways of resilience, solidarity, and genuine transformation.

Bio of Speaker

Bhargavi S.Rao

Environmental & Social Justice

Bhargavi S. Rao works at the intersections of community action with law, policy, planning and governance. She has about 30 years of experience across research, advocacy, campaign and teaching in a variety of human rights, governance and people-centred initiatives, and in advancing environmental and social justice. She is an Independent Researcher/Educator, Experiential Learning Designer, Facilitator, Outdoor pedagogue and a Visiting Senior Fellow (Honorary) at the Impact and Policy Research Institute.

She is passionate about driving climate action and raising awareness about the pressing challenges of our time. Her efforts focus on amplifying solutions to the climate crisis while advocating for the needs of the most vulnerable communities. Committed to fostering resilience, equity, and sustainable development through collaboration, innovation, and grassroots engagement.

She has been a member of the India team of the international Comparative Covid Response (CompCoRe) project, from an STS perspective led by S. Hilgartner, Cornell Univ, S.Jasanoff, Harvard Kennedy School, & the Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST) research project.

She has extensive experience in coordinating & teaching a variety of educational programmes. She coordinates the Knowledge2Action Academy, Swissnex India, she was Co-Director of Minnesota Studies in International Development,(India Prog), Univ of Minnesota and Cities in the 21st Century and Health & Community programmes of International Honours Programme (Boston University & SIT). She teaches on faculty led Study Abroad programmes such as the GCIL, UW, Seattle, is guest faculty at Azim Premji University, Bhoomi College, Baduku college and at other universities in India & abroad. She also engages in corporate training.

She has worked with Centre for Financial Accountability, Public Health Foundation of India, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, United Way, ESG & Indian Institute Science

Talk title:
Life Below Water: Communities, Conservation and the Political Ecology of the Coast

Talk summary:
Small-scale fishing ‘communities’ are conceptually and to a lesser extent in policy firmly rooted in imaginations of coastal conservation (at sea and on land). Yet in practice are these communities really visible in conservation? And what form does this conservation take? This presentation looks at Life Below Water, SDG 14, in India, and critically examines the community in conservation in a changing Blue Economy landscape. It builds upon recent scholarship that critiques the Blue Economy discourse of sustainable and equitable growth as well as its material manifestations, highlighting the complex ways small-scale fishers are increasingly dispossessed of access to shores and seas. The community in conservation is thus reimagined – away from community-based fisheries governance to participation in activities such as ecotourism and mariculture. However, equally important, is that small-scale fishers themselves are embedded in a political economy that has shaped their own ‘developmental’ aspirations which makes a small-scale fisheries imagination for the future increasingly challenging.

Bio of Speaker

Ajit Menon

Political Ecology

Ajit Menon is a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India. He was a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, Germany between October 2019-January 2020 and a L.M Singhvi Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge between September-December 2012. . His research and writing focus on the political ecology of forests and fisheries in south India within the wider context of how global capitalism shapes conservation and development. He is part of the Editorial Collective of the journal Conservation and Society. His co-authored and edited books include Community -Based Natural Resource Management in South Asia (Sage Publications 2007), Democratizing Forest Governance in India (OUP 2017) and most recently Environmental Politics at the Local: Natural Resource Governance in India (Orient Blackswan 2024).

Talk title:
Animal Agency, Human Compassion and Wildlife Conservation

Talk summary:
Forty years ago, Michael Soule, the father of Conservation Biology argued that "Conservation and animal welfare, however, are conceptually distinct, and they should remain politically separate". While conservation science has moved a great deal forward in the past few decades, the perspective that "emotional identification with individual" animals is tantamount to bad science is still a dominant paradigm in the field. Is it indeed, poor science to engage with questions relating to animal personhood or even animal welfare? Does it aid wildlife conservation or is it immaterial? This talk will examine if it is necessary for conservationists to examine these issues and if it affects the way they practise their work.

Bio of Speaker

Sindhu Radhakrishna

Primatology, Behavioural Ecology & Conservation Biology

Dr Sindhu Radhakrishna is Professor and Head of the Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, India. She is an ethologist and primatologist whose research focuses on primate social behaviour and cognition, human- animal relations, animal decision-making, wildlife conservation, and human-environment interactions. She is primarily interested in understanding how interactions between humans, animals and the environment influence human and animal ecologies and cultures and explores these questions using primates as animal models. Prof Radhakrishna holds a master’s degree in Psychology from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu and a PhD in Animal Behaviour from Mysore University, Karnataka. She has published extensively and is the recipient of many research grants and honours, notably the INSA Young Scientist Award in 2004, the Nehru-Fulbright Fellowship in 2013, and the DST-SERB Women Excellence Award in 2014.

Talk title:
Tracks from the Past: Importance of Historical Research in Conservation and Wildlife Science

Talk summary:
History as a discipline is not often associated with conservation and wildlife sciences, usually relegated to being an esoteric endeavor. However, the oft-repeated axiom that one must know the past to understand the present holds equally true for conservation and wildlife sciences. History can open innumerable new possibilities in this regard – understanding the natural history and distribution of species in the past in order to co-relate it with the present, studying the political and social history of landscapes and peoples at the heart of ongoing and planned conservation efforts to facilitate better conservation decision making, analyzing the history of institutions and policies governing our forests and wildlife habitats, the genesis and evolution of conservation efforts and their outcomes over the centuries, and much more. Historical research in conservation and wildlife sciences is critical to understanding where we are today, how and why we reached here, lessons from the past, and possibilities for the future. This talk hopes to touch upon each of these aspects.

Bio of Speaker

Raza Kazmi

Wildlife History & Conservation Communication

Raza Kazmi is a conservationist, wildlife historian, storyteller, writer, and researcher. His fields of expertise include India's wildlife and forest administration history, conservation policy, and conservation issues afflicting the insurgency-ridden east-central Indian landscape. His writings appear in national newspapers (The Hindu, Indian Express), online media houses (The Wire, Fiftytwodotin, RoundGlass Sustain) as well as various magazines and journals (Frontline, Seminar, TheIndiaForum, Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, Sanctuary Asia, etc.). A recipient of the New India Foundation Fellowship for 2021 and the Omega Resilience Awards Fellowship for 2025, he is currently writing a book tentatively titled To Whom Does the Forest Belong? – The Fate of Green in the Land of Red. He works as a Conservation Communicator with Wildlife Conservation Trust, Mumbai.

Talk title:
Seeing the Season's Signs: how citizen science is helping document changes in biodiversity

Talk summary:
The study of cyclic and seasonal changes in organisms is known as 'phenology'. Plant and animal phenology is intimately linked to food availability for humans - it is not surprising therefore that the study of life-cycles has always been a part of human life. Some of the oldest and longest written records of phenology in the world are on culturally important trees, long before systematic observation of seasonality became an entire branch of inquiry in ecological sciences. In today's world, this kind of record-keeping would be termed 'citizen science' - the practice of scientific research by non-professionals. As climate change rears its very visible head across the world, large-scale and long-term seasonality data on biodiversity can be especially valuable in adapting to environmental changes. Citizen science places this opportunity in the hands of anyone who wants to be part of the knowledge-generation process. In tropical regions, where plants and animals may have diverse seasonality strategies, citizen science has helped create a robust picture of contemporary changes. However, the tropical world is still a few hundred GBs worth of data away from knowing exactly how changing climate is affecting biodiversity. In this talk, I will present an overview of how citizen science has been used to understand the seasonality and distribution of biodiversity across the world, and how one project in India - SeasonWatch - leverages valuable cultural knowledge on tree seasonality to quantify contemporary changes in relation to the environment.

Bio of Speaker

Geetha Ramaswami

Plant Ecology

Geetha Ramaswami is a plant ecologist with a special interest in invasive species, plant-animal interactions, and phenology. Her past research has focused on the dynamics of spread, and biotic interactions of an invasive plant - Lantana camara - in forest and rural ecosystems of India. She currently leads SeasonWatch - a citizen science project tracking the seasonality of tree species across India.