Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, United States
Background/Question/Methods Motivating urban residents to engage in conservation behaviors is a challenging imperative of urban wildlife ecology. As more people live and work in densely populated areas, the mantle for conserving threatened and endangered species may necessarily shift towards urban centers. To support this shift, researchers and environmental education practitioners will be tasked with finding ways to encourage conservation behaviors among urban communities. Civic ecology is a both a practice and a field of study concerned with imbedding environmental learning within local stewardship initiatives and civic engagement. Urban nature centers and environmental programs are uniquely positioned to offer volunteer opportunities for city residents to take a hands-on role in species conservation. The purpose of this talk is to (1) present findings from qualitative research on the lived experiences of Atlanta (GA) metropolitan area residents volunteering for herpetofaunal conservation, and (2) illustrate how these findings might be broadly implemented through a case study of the Great Baltimore Oyster Partnership of Baltimore, MD.
Results/Conclusions Qualitative analysis indicated that four overarching themes contributed to urban resident conservation volunteerism; these included supportive communities, embodied interactions, empowering growth, and civic belonging. ‘Supportive communities’ describes the relationships volunteers foster and maintain which support their volunteer engagement and continued motivation. ‘Embodied interactions’ are bodily experiences of growth, change, and even destruction in the biophysical realm. ‘Empowering growth’ describes experiences of personal and professional development in response to challenges or learning opportunities. And finally, ‘Civic belonging’ describes a strong sense of connection and belonging stemming from experiences of being fully accepted as environmental stewards and as people. By applying these findings to the implementation of a pre-existing oyster restoration program and highlighting the principles of civic ecology applicable to both examples, this presentation hopes to present actionable implications and recommendations for researchers and practitioners.
