The Interdisciplinary Conservation in Canada Seminar Series is one of several York University-affiliated programs of events that are proceeding in a virtual format during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Organized by Sheila Colla, an assistant professor in York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), with an interest in the conservation of smaller species such as bees, the series has examines how government, academia and ENGOs are addressing threats to wildlife and the climate from a variety of perspectives.
In support of efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the talks and increase their accessibility, the series’ first 10 in-person events of 2020 were made available through live streaming with captions on the series’ Facebook Page.
While the COVID-19 outbreak has led to the postponement and cancellation of many lectures and seminars, talks in this series – such as Brett Favaro’s March 23 presentation and Q-and-A concerning why climate scientists should embrace activism – are proceeding in an online format. Favaro’s presentation has already been viewed more than 600 times.
On March 30 at noon, Aerin Jacob from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative will make a presentation about large landscape conservation. On April 8, Adam Ford from the University of British Columbia will lead a talk titled “Misplaced Conservation.”
Previous events in the series, which have included discussions about fish, cat, whale, butterfly, agricultural and floral conservation, some of which have seen more than 600 people watch via online streaming in addition to in-person attendees. The past talks can be viewed on the FES Facebook Page.
A calendar of events hosted by FES can be found on the Faculty website.
Those who would like to let the York University community know about events or series that are proceeding online should email YFile. The Zoom videoconferencing application has a captioning feature and options to stream directly to Facebook and Instagram.