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Expert on the protection of great apes and Program Director for the Arcus Foundation discusses her role in disseminating information and bridging gaps between stakeholders

The second session of the Salzburg Global Seminar Parks for the Planet Forum: The Next Frontier: Transboundary Cooperation for Biodiversity and Peace sought to bring together a diverse range of experts for an interdisciplinary and wide-ranging discussion on the interconnected issues of biodiversity preservation, economic development, migration and displacement, and peace and security.

One such expert in attendance was Helga Rainer, an expert in great apes conservation and now works as Program Director for the Arcus Foundation. While in Salzburg, she took some time to discuss how managing information and bringing stakeholders together is an important aspect in preserving biodiversity.

One of Rainer’s focuses is on information management and working with the wider conservation community to pool their resources and knowledge. In her work, she engages with emerging issues that threaten ape conservation through a variety of avenues, and considers the publication series The State of the Apes as one of her successes in pursuing these goals. 

As Rainer explains, the series, which has covered issues such as how the extractive industries and industrial agriculture impact great ape populations, is “the sum of the contributions of a diverse range of stakeholders.” The publications highlight how best to protect ape populations, but also “acknowledge the importance of economic development and how it’s critical for human wellbeing,” while aiming to “reconcile economic development with the conservation of apes.”

“That’s why we initiated The State of the Apes publication series,” explains Rainer. “To speak about interface, and see where there are opportunities for reconciling these seemingly disparate issues.”

The aim of the publication is to provide a format in which information from across disciplines and expertise can be disseminated. The topics are addressed through a broad lens, encompassing a variety of viewpoints in order to best address these emerging issues.

This broad lens approach was also seen in Salzburg at the Parks for the Planet Forum. With experts from across disciplines and geographic locations convening, the discussions often move past simply asking how to conserve biodiversity to encompass issues such as the environmental impacts and opportunities of mass migration, and how conservation and biodiversity can be used as a path towards peace between states. The Arcus Foundation provided funding to the session, recognizing that they share with Salzburg Global a similar emphasis on reconciling human development with biodiversity and conservation, and opening up the discussion to include stakeholders that may have been excluded from the debate in traditional conservation efforts.

For Rainer and Arcus, alongside the publication series, there’s also work to be done on the ground; the publications inform and engage stakeholders, but the research and recommendations still need to be applied to the real world. This doesn’t come without challenges, especially in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DCR), which is home to “incredibly important” populations of gorillas and chimpanzees, but after decades of civil war is still incredibly politically dynamic, lacking in both security and sufficient financial resources.

“In these conditions it may appear that progress or impacts are slow to come – but from our perspective, it’s important to stay engaged… regardless of the fact that meaningful impacts may be a long time coming,” explains Rainer. “This is a philosophy that really underpins our work – not only do we want to engage in these landscapes in the long term, but we really feel that collaboration and partnerships is a fundamental way to be effective and efficient.”

This long-term, multi-stakeholder approach is shared by Salzburg Global as it rolls out the leadership and action platform of the Parks for the Planet Forum over the next ten years.

Helga Rainer was a participant in the Salzburg Global session The Next Frontier: Transboundary Cooperation for Biodiversity and Peace, which is part of the multi-year Parks for the Planet Forum. This session is being hosted in partnership with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), MAVA Foundation, Arcus Foundation, Aga Khan Foundation, German cooperation (Deutsche Zusammenarbeit), Huffington Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Foundation, and others. More information on the session can be found here: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/571.