Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency) and the Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) chair group at WUR are looking for a social sciences MSc student with GIS skills who can work with spatial data and is interested in issues of social and environmental justice in the context of biodiversity conservation and scenarios. On offer is a combined trajectory whereby the Msc internship (4 months will lead to a related Msc thesis study (3 months), guided and mentored by PBL and SDC staff.
The task is to conduct a quantitative analysis of how alternative conservation scenarios for nature can affect local populations. Who and how many people are going to be affected by the possible extension of conserved areas in the coming years and how can local people be involved in and benefit from various conservation strategies? What are the implications of this for conservation strategies as they are discussed at the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity and how might this influence the global biodiversity policy framework for the coming decade? The work combines analysis of global scenarios with national level – or smaller scale – with the possibility of the results feeding back into PBL work on regional/global modelling and scenarios.
PBL is the Dutch environmental planning agency and it has recently developed alternative scenarios for nature conservation and assessed them via a modelling exercise. The selected candidate will be working next to staff at PBL to conduct the quantitative analysis and will be supported by SDC academics to connect the results to debates on justice and to the new Convivial Conservation framework that seeks for post-capitalist alternative to current conservation strategies.
For further information, please contact Marco Immovilli (SDC/PBL: marco.immovilli@wur.nl) and Bram Buscher (bram.buscher@wur.nl)
Sociology of Development and Change 