Renee Seacor, JD Carnivore Conservation AdvocateWildlife Governance Reform & Community Engagement The importance of advocating for wildlife coexistence and conservation Successful wildlife conservation and coexistence requires good decision-makers who advocate for...

In my prior blog entry, after introducing myself, I touched on both Euro-North American and Ojibwe worldviews, specifically in relation to wolves. The objective was to highlight how worldviews influence our values and motives, including those guiding science. Therefore, science will always be partial to worldviews, which suggests the foundational discussion within conservation should be about worldviews. In that entry, I suggested that Ojibwe views of wolves were more accurate, caring and respectful than those of Euro-North American managers when assessed from who we know wolves are. Yet, the Ojibwe and other Indigenous worldviews are not the only ones who consider wolves as persons with whom we should cultivate caring and respectful relationships.

I’m very much an immigrant: to the Midwest, to science and to rewilding. And yet, as with coyotes in the eastern U.S., I feel at home. I was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was a working-class city kid that did not spend much time out in nature, except for the occasional beach trip.