In-person short course
26-30 October 2026
Cape Town, South Africa
Why are so many conservation approaches unable to do justice to people who live in these areas? What could an integrated approach to “living with” biodiversity rather than separating locals from nature achieve? Is conservation caught up in politics instead of focusing on transformation?
The Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) calls on conservation professionals wanting to learn about the answers to these questions to apply for our 2026 Living Landscapes: New Thinking on Integrating Biodiversity and Social Justice in Africa short course.
Mainstream conservation focuses its efforts on protecting animal species, mainly charismatic ones: rhinos, big cats, and elephants. The main problems with conservation in Africa are the ever-present racial, gender and other inequities that persist and are, at times, getting worse. Social, spatial, and environmental justice issues still receive too little systematic attention and need urgent action. This short course provides a holistic overview of global conservation paradigms, their strengths and weaknesses, and why Africa needs transformative paradigms. The course references how the global biodiversity crisis takes on connotations in the African context, where living with nature has been successful, and where major issues of who benefits and who remains are pivotal to understanding what needs to change.
What is being offered?
This five-day, in-person short course transforms conservation ideas and practices in Africa in biodiverse rural, urban, land, and ocean spaces.
What is the course content?
The key themes and concepts covered in the course will be as follows:
- Decolonisation and the historical context of conservation paradigms in Africa and globally and the current biodiversity crisis and how this is unequal across space and time;
- Political ecology in relation to conservation: how to understand conservation in a broader context focused on tackling both the extinction crisis and urgent issues of social justice and spatial justice?
- Alternatives to mainstream conservation and possibility for sustainable transformation;
- Themes in conservation: rights, violence, law, gender, livelihoods, biodiversity.
- Fieldwork trip to contextualise the conservation challenges in key living landscapes
What funding is available?
The short course is fully funded and will be held in Cape Town, South Africa. Funding is available for a small number of participants to attend the short course training in-person in Cape Town.
How will participants be assessed?
Participants will be assessed by means of a pre-contact assignment, a field report and a final submission of a learning portfolio. If participants complete all the assessments, they will receive a Certificate of Completion.
Who should apply?
- Participants working in biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, and governance (land, water, and ocean), including government agencies, conservation organisations, private organisations, community-based organisations working on conservation issues, conservation NGOs, and related agencies in Africa.
- A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, and a minimum of three to four years of work experience in natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, or environmental governance in Southern Africa.
- Applicants interested in innovative ways to tackle the biodiversity crisis in Africa and beyond, and doing so in a way that puts social justice at the front and centre.
- Applicants interested in building lessons from the history of conservation and applying new ways of thinking going forward.
How to apply
Interested parties should:
- complete the short course online application form;
- upload a motivation about why you feel you are the best candidate; and
- upload an updated CV.
Shortlisted candidates will be requested to do an online presentation on a specific topic to a review panel before we make a final selection.
Deadine
10 August 2026
Course coordinator:
Professor Moenieba Isaacs
For enquiries linked to the short course, please contact:
Ms Carla Henry
Coordinator: Postgraduate & Continuing Education
Email: plaasshortcourse@plaas.org.za
