Reimagining Sustainable Field Research: Doing Science Without Doing Harm
ModulesReimagining Sustainable Field Research: Doing Science Without Doing Harm
This micromodule aims to raise awareness about sustainable and ethical field research practices that minimize harm to the environment, wildlife, and local communities.
By the end of this micromodule, participants should be able to:
- Identify basic actions that should be taken to minimize footprints in ecological field research.
- Recognize strategies to reduce environmental impact during fieldwork.
- Reflect on how sustainable and ethical practices can be implemented in field research.
What is this about?
Field research is essential for advancing knowledge of ecosystem processes and functions. However, if not carefully carried out, field research can lead to serious environmental and ethical consequences, including habitat disruption, heightened stress for wildlife, and a decline in biodiversity, suggesting that the way we conduct field research matters as much as the findings themselves.
This micromodule provides practical guidance to minimize these impacts. Learners will explore strategies for safe, inclusive, and responsible field research activities and examine ethical considerations in wildlife research. Through examples and case studies, participants will gain tools to conduct research responsibly while supporting environmental sustainability and ethical standards.Doing science responsibly: Minimizing ecological footprints in field research
In ecology, field research aims to understand how ecosystems work, respond, and change. But whether we’re conducting observational surveys or setting up experiments, field activities can unintentionally damage the ecosystems that we want to protect.” This raises a central question of how we can minimize the environmental impact of our fieldwork in accordance with ethical standards. To be able to answer this question, watch the video on “Doing science responsibly: Minimizing ecological footprints in field research” to familiarize yourself with basic actions that can be implemented to minimize the environmental impacts of field research activities. Note down those actions that you find the most relevant to your research.
Overview of safe, inclusive, and equitable research fieldwork
Fieldwork can have several environmental consequences related to energy use, habitat disturbance, waste production and methods of sampling. Practicing safe, inclusive, and equitable fieldwork can help reduce these risks and costs. In this session, you will learn about various environmental impacts of research fieldwork and explore practical strategies to reduce their impacts. Watch the video on “Minimising the Environmental Impact of Research Fieldwork” to familiarize yourself with the ethical challenges of research fieldwork and their mitigating strategies.
