What’s Love Got To Do With It: Renewing the Foundations of Conservation Science and Practice

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22584/nr58.2025.004

Abstract

We seek a renewing of the foundations of conservation science and practice with love as one of the main pillars. We trace how this has been embodied through histories, practices, knowledge systems, writings, and key figures throughout conservation science and practice. We see this work as a call to renew our vows to practise conservation science, and practise with a deep love for the species and places we work with and for.

†Author Contribution Statement: Here we interrupt the regular hierarchical nature of journal authorship and present authorship to the concept of love translated into different languages. The word for love is listed as our authors in Tlingit, Kanien’keha, English, Polish, and Latin. The contributors to this paper include, in no particular order, Krystal Isbister (she/her, Yukon settler/western Europe, northern flora), Katarzyna Nowak (she/her, Polish return migrant/former asylee, hoofed mammals), Jared Gonet (he/him, Indigenous, Tlingit/Polish/Dene, ecosystems), Paul McCarney (he/him, settler/western European), and Dan Longboat (he/him, Mohawk Nation of the Rotinonshón:ni (People of the Longhouse) the Six Nations Confederacy). We see all as equal contributors in various ways that create a whole greater than the parts.

Author Biographies

At Sax̱án, Yukon University

Jared Gonet, Senior Instructor, School of Indigenous Governance
Indigenous, Tlingit/Polish/Dene, Ecosystems

Love, University of Alberta, Yukon University

Krystal Isbister, PhD Student
Yukon Settler/Western Europe, Northern Flora

Miłość, Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences

Katarzyna Nowak, Adjunct
Polish Return Migrant/Former Asylee, Hoofed Mammals

Amare, Yukon University

Paul McCarney, Assistant Professor, School of Indigenous Governance
Settler/Western European

Konnoronhkwa, Trent University

Dan Longboat, Associate Professor, Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies
Mohawk Nation of the Rotinonshón:ni (People of the Longhouse) the Six Nations Confederacy

 

Front Cover of the Northern Review 58, displaying a photo of Layers of Autumn Splendour at the Takhini Salt Flats, with layers of yellow, orange, green, red

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Published

12/15/2025

Issue

No. 58 (2025)

Section

Commentaries and Reflections

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Jared, Krystal Isbister, Katarzyna Nowak, Paul McCarney, Dan Longboat

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