NEW PRINCIPLES FOR BIOLOGICAL FIELDWORK WILL BUILD EQUITY FOR RESEARCHERS AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES
A new paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences lays out a set of principles for biological fieldwork designed to lessen inequities between researchers and local populations, as well as internally among research teams themselves. Many “best practices” in the paper are adapted from procedures for permitting and licensing developed over years at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum. The co-author, Rafe Brown, is an EEB professor and curator-in-charge of the Herpetology Division at KU’s Biodiversity Institute.
“When I was invited by colleagues at Berkeley to be part of this conversation, I was really happy to contribute,” said Brown.