We partner with Indigenous peoples and local communities, with private sector companies, and with municipal and national governments to co-develop research questions and guide policy.
We are deeply committed to doing place-based work that often requires intense field seasons where we co-produce knowledge with local communities.
We use quantitative, spatial, and community-engaged methods to understand conservation issues and propose practical solutions.
We mostly draw on community ecology, conservation and social psychology, policy analysis, and ethno-zoology to answer our applied research questions.
We recognize that UC Berkeley sits in the territory of xučyun (Huichin (Hoo-Choon)), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo (Cho-chen-yo) speaking Ohlone people. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Muwekma (Muh-wek-muh) Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band.
As members of the Berkeley community, we recognize the history of the land on which we stand, and the Muwekma Ohlone people who are alive and flourishing members of the Berkeley and broader Bay Area communities today.
We further acknowledge that UC Berkeley is a land grant institution that was founded in 1868 on stolen Indigenous land. Learn about the history of land-grab universities and, more specifically, the founding of the University of California and efforts to motivate UC to take action regarding accountability to Indigenous peoples of California in a recent report “The University of California Land Grab: A Legacy of Profit from Indigenous Land—A Report of Key Learnings and Recommendations.” Learn more about xučyun (Huichin), the home territory of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people here.
