THE CONSERVATION GAUNTLET!

Sab ka Vikas ! 

The clarion cry for economic development rings clear and loud. The accompanying "veena" of sustainability, environment, inclusion is soft  and muted - yet (hopefully!) persistent. The governance framework around environmental issues is confusing and cluttered. Environment Ministry, States & Centre, National Green Tribunal, Wild life Board, various legislation and their justice-ability, Environmental clearances  - all are into overlap, contradiction and even conflict mode. There is also new office memoranda contradicting existing legislation. 

The environmentalists and conservationists, especially NGOs, are running for cover and the activists are confused and fragmented even more than ever. The fear of the new sedition law and the "foreign funding" swords are having an impact on candour.

While it is possible to lament the crumbling of a known ( maybe ineffective ) governance and monitoring framework of the past, and wring our hands in despair and despondency , it is equally possible to conceive opportunities of immense value in the present apparent chaos.

Hitherto, the three legs of sustainability have been anchored by separate advocates of each. The economic development voice has come from industry, land developers, infra companies, builders, investors and the financial community. The community and social concerns of the excluded, "backward" and secluded sections have been voiced by activists seeking to mobilise popular movements and NGOs seeking predominantly rights, benefits and choices resulting in the socio-economic outcomes for these sections. The environmental  concerns have tended to be a combination of conservation NGOs, and PIL activists seeking to pressure or influence the decision makers to make preferred choices.  The "red lines" of each of the these three areas ( while the subject of much disagreement!) were reasonably clear hitherto. 

Now we have a situation where the environmental redlines are clearly being dismantled and shifted into the discretionary domain of policy makers belonging to the political class. Coastal regulations, River regulations,  Environmental regulations in general are being redrawn in a manner that is leaving a lot of people aghast at these choices. Several so-called wildlife bodies, like the National Board for Wildlife, have cleared more than 100 projects in one meetings—and hundreds of projects so far—raising fears amongst conservationists that these decisions have been taken without application of mind. The banner of "all this for economic development and inclusion" seems to some people a "goebbelsian truth" !! In the social space the apparent "paternalism" of political policy makers and thinly disguised agendas are the subject of polarised and deliberately confusing debate.

While the rhetoric of each has tended to claim to be integrating economic, social and environmental aspects in their narrative, the reality seems to be more of a polarised discourse characterised by an "either- or" solution seeking. The role of media anchors who have thrived on TRPs derived from polarising and strident high decibel, over-talking, 10-participant-10-minute so-called prime time debates has certainly not helped!

Most science based conservationists who work in the field and do real high quality study of the environments and holistic landscapes, tend to be thoughtful in integrating the community (socially); the economics of development impact and needs,as much as their deep and serious study of the elements of the landscapes. This is now their time! 

It is indeed time for the integration of social, economic and environmental science for integrated solutions that truly balance all three. The key is not to agree with one or the other view in isolation, but to ensure that there is a balanced and factual, science based discourse in the public space for the most appropriate and optimal choice making.

The time has come to widen the deep specialisation of "environmentalists" from specie focus and elements to move to depth and width. Example - Mumbai airport - lets not focus on ten good reasons why the airport should not be built, but on ten ways in which we can best balance the environmental needs, the economic compulsions and the social equity of what we do and how we do the airport!  It is essential to identify that the project will put at risk the marinescape / landscape for 40,000 migratory birds and may significantly impact threatened and near threatened species, without obfuscating facts. Another Example - NH7. Can we recommend ten mitigation measures that will balance the development benefits with the need to retain, even enhance the viable corridors for the apex predator to move from the almost isolated protected areas across more than one state ?

We need to embed economic and social science capability in our conservationists to be able to crunch the numbers, data and analysis to understand "balancing" and "solutionising" viable ways forward. One of the biggest challenges posed in such an approach is - mitigation costs money and the advocates of development  won't spend more than a token amount on this! The question can then be - can we mobilise different recommendations of PPP or CSR or other funding of mitigation ? diversion of un-used CAMPA funds? My point is can we be creative advocates of "viable" solutions from all three view points? 

On issues like NH7 - can any conservation activist, NGO or institution, even now, do an analysis that demonstrates the economic value of NH7, the community benefits, and the environmental issues in an integrated manner ( not A+B+C = D!!!) and then go on to recommend a balanced solution which optimises benefits in all three areas along with costs and funding suggestions?

What will it take to develop the New Age Conservationists who can deliver such value to the EARTH and its future ? Can we move from small steps like propagating Conservation Economics and landscape environmental  studies (necessary and good steps) to building an integrated capacity for understanding and solutionising for an India-relevant approach?

Some organisations like BNHS are picking this up and have already  started a pioneering  programme to groom young scientists to meet these challenges.

The Gauntlet is in our face.

Choosing a Career

The opportunity to interact with young people, especially the curious, inquisitive, challenging and innocent is always such a delight. At a recent event at a B School in Mumbai, I had the occasion to engage with about 300 such fresh students beginning their MBA journey. It was indeed a pleasure to spend time with them and my hope is they found the interaction as enjoyable. Careers were often made by accident but increasing today people have choices and options that have emerged both in the approach and the nature of careers that are opening up for them. to be able to the best for your self, these need to be thought about with some care and realistic assessment of oneself and the opportunities as well.

The key aspects that need to be thought through are four :-

1. What you LOVE ?
2. What you are GOOD AT?
3. What the world will PAY FOR?
4. What is GOOD FOR THE WORLD?

Using a depiction that is fairly common place these aspects can be brought alive in an engaging way to be useful and fun for people to begin thinking through such choices. it is also a valuable to revisit these thoughts and choices from time to time. below is a presentation of one slide (a first for me!). 

If seen in paired combinations it brings alive some interesting insights and the likely impact / consequences of choices relating to the four aspects.

If I love doing some thing - Painting, and I am really good at it the question i have to address is "what will the world pay for"?

If I love a sport but am not really good at it ?

If i am really very good with numbers but don't love that kind of stuff?

This kind of conversation allows people to see themselves inside these choices from their own location of capabilities, liking, judgment  an realities of the world we live in.

I would really welcome feedback on this!

Building your own Guidance System

At various points of time from early stages of our career to post -retirement we all feel the need for some counsel, some guidance, some help. This is sometimes easily available to the fortunate and sometimes hard to come by for many of us. We seek help with career choices, personal choices, business choices - a range of challenges and opportunities that life throws at us where we feel we could do with some sage advice or help. This is more so today in the career space than elsewhere perhaps. (The fashion statement in organizations today is "coaching & mentoring") When I was seeking to abandon my Junior Research Fellowship for an M Phil / PhD and jump into a job, I felt that need ; when I wanted to get into Training and Development but was stuck in an Industrial Relations job, I felt that need. I even feel the need today  when I think of opportunities to move from HR (where I have spent 35 years ) to running a business!

I am sure many of us have felt or do feel the way I have described above. I have tried to put my thoughts together to pull out what I have learned from my life experiences to build a framework to help provide this for ourselves. I think this is important as it empowers us to take charge of our support structure for such situations in our ongoing lives.

What is my Guidance System? Simple - a few "trusted" individuals to whom I can turn when I need help in navigating the challenges and dilemmas of my life especially my career choices.

What do we look for in such persons from whom we could get this kind of help? The most important aspect of such help lies in the "trustworthiness" of the person or persons we engage with and seek help from. Getting help, in terms of what we would feel is sage counsel cannot be without the comfort of trustworthiness of such "helpers". This trustworthiness is predicated on three anchors and these are:

1. Their awareness and experience in the field or subject we seek help on.
2. Their forthrightness and candor in "saying it like it is " to us.
3. and their having a significant empathy - looking at it all from "my side"

The presence of only two of these three creates interesting dynamics which actually are not quite helpful!

for example in the picture above we have three combinations:

1. Support and Candour = this is what we get from our spouse ! We know they are  undisputedly on our side and will tell us  the blunt stuff but may not know much about the subject! May not be very helpful where we need some awareness of the subject at issue.
2. Domain & Subject and Candour = this will get us the hard evaluation of an "unconcerned" realistic nature but again may not be presented, articulated or thought of in a way that is helpful to us. Actually it may put us off or demotivate us more than help us.
3. Subject & Domain and Supportive = will get us a knowledgeable champion - but we may miss the realistic mirror that tells us to stop daydreaming and face the reality of our constraints, weaknesses or gaps.

It also means that from our side we must respond to Support with affection; to candour with listening and humility; and to Subject awareness with transparency & information. ( how to get the most by way of our responses may be the next page we can look at when I get to writing it!)

So building our support structure requires identifying and cultivating individuals who can help us by all three attributes. I say this not in a manipulative way but in a genuine sense of seeking such friends, philosophers and guides as a part of the journey of life and the collection of relationships we enjoy and nurture, not just because we are comfortable with them, but also because we like,value and respect them as human beings and co-travellers.

I have been fortunate in having (serendipitously perhaps!) been blessed with a few such and feel that perhaps if I had consciously sought them out and built my "personal guidance system" - a constellation of such individuals early in life, I would perhaps have benefited enormously more! 

But then would I have had the humility and wisdom to listen.....

The tentative 1st steps.....

Testing this new space !
New for me but tried and tested form lots of people - as i venture here i hesitate, but move forward with trepidation wondering why ? seeking affirmation? not really ! seeking expression?  perhaps! seeking seeking passing ships in the night that will blink their lights as a nod and smile and pass on into the darkness beyond? maybe?
so let me try ? let me see what it means and let me feel the sense of a pebble tossed in a still pool to see if the pool resonates with a ripple? a splash and a sound followed by silence or .....

as the tiger cub ventures forth into untested terrain and driven by curiosity but tempered with trepidation - lives , tries and learns - so do I.