Multiple CoCo sessions at Pathways Conference: Human Dimensions of Wildlife

From 14 to 17 June, the international conference and training programme Pathways: Human Dimensions of Wildlife brought together wildlife conservationists and practitioners from around the world to discuss the countless challenges of coexistence between people and wildlife. The conference explored this year's theme, "Wildlife and Human Well-being", through presentations, keynotes, training sessions and networking opportunities covering topics such as agriculture and human-wildlife conflict.

CoCo was well represented throughout the event, with partners chairing and contributing to several sessions, particularly on Tuesday 16 June.

The CoCo partners kicked off with a session on livestock-predator conflicts, during which researchers presented their findings on the shared landscapes of pastoralism and large carnivores. This session included presentations from INRAE, INN and CITA on how humans and bears share the same landscapes, the farm-level drivers behind livestock losses to large carnivores across Europe, and a new European typology of pastoral systems shedding light on how livestock and carnivores interact across the continent.

The morning continued with the session "What it takes for human-wildlife coexistence", chaired by John Linnell, CoCo project lead and representing NINA. In this session, a definition of coexistence was presented and critically discussed. This definition was based on two workshops: one at Pathways Europe 2024 which gathered a wide range of views, and one with members of the IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Specialist Group.

Afterwards, the CoCo team took part in the session “Sharing landscapes with wildlife: Coexistence pathways for high nature value pastoral systems“ which highlighted the launch of a special feature exploring coexistence from different angles - from conservation payments and trust to place-based histories and pastoralist perspectives. The papers presented showed just how important it is to understand coexistence as something shaped by policy, local context, lived experience and relationships between people and wildlife. The session was chaired by adelphi, IEA, Umeå University, INRAE and Callisto. 

The day continued with the fully CoCo-led session “Cross-country learning for coexistence: Evaluating governance of pastoralism and wildlife in Europe“. CoCo partners explored how pastoralism and wildlife policies interact across different national contexts, examining policy coherence, justice and coordination - and how complex policy landscapes can either support or hinder coexistence on the ground. The session included contributions covering Sweden (Umeå University), Romania (ICDCRM), Spain (CITA), Poland (IOP), Italy (IEA), Germany (ZALF) and France (INRAE), as well as the EU policy framework (adelphi & Umeå University). The discussion highlighted both shared challenges and important differences between countries.

The day ended on a more playful note with the session „Serious games for coexistence: Immersive tools to transform human–nature relationships and mediate conservation conflicts“. This session was co-organised by the EU Platform on Coexistence between people and large carnivores and the Coexist Project, and highlighted the potential of interactive methods to open dialogue, build understanding and explore complex human–nature relationships in new ways. A particularly interactive moment was the session playing the EU Platform role play, showing how immersive tools can help participants engage with different perspectives and the real-world complexity of coexistence challenges.