Hello Everyone!

The undergraduate students in our new Conservation + Technology course at UC Berkeley are working on a project to help local communities live more harmoniously with wildlife, and they are looking specifically at what possible new income opportunities might relieve community pressures placed on wildlife and natural resources in general. The communities they are focusing on right now are in Belize, Peru, Uganda, and Botswana, but they are willing to speak with anyone who might be connected to a similar situation, so location is not extremely important. As for examples, this could be someone who used to (or still does) poach wildlife, or it could be someone who is dependent upon wildlife tourism, but is now facing or possibly facing financial trouble due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lack of tourists. But really, anyone with some related knowledge/ideas to share is someone we would like to speak to!

As for logistics here, we are currently trying to setup Zoom video chats or phone calls as soon as possible for 45-60 minute interviews. The day and time for these interviews is very flexible, though ideally, we’d like to have them finished up by Nov 30th at the latest.

I think that covers the gist of this request for now, but please let me know if you have any questions. Otherwise, if you could help us set something like this up, we’d be incredibly honored and I know our students would be thrilled about it!

If interested, please contact me via email at [email protected].

Thank you so much for your time and consideration of this request!

With much appreciation,

Dan