Portrait of a Conservationist
250 Things a Conservationist Should Know
Our list is inspired by Michael Sorkin’s famous Two Hundred and Fifty Things an Architect Should Know1. Sorkin’s list was not a catalogue of architectural facts, it was a portrait of an architect: the knowledge they should possess, the places they should know, the questions they should ask, the skills they should develop, and the values they should hold. It recognised that great practitioners are shaped as much by curiosity, culture, politics, history, and human experience as they are by technical expertise.
This list attempts something similar for conservation.
Conservation is associated with ecology, biodiversity, and the protection of nature. These are important.
Conservation is also about people, about the relationships between landscapes and livelihoods, between communities and ecosystems, between present decisions and future consequences.
The work of conserving nature requires scientific understanding, but also observation, humility, practical skill, political awareness, emotional resilience, and a deep appreciation of place.
The entries in the attached poster are an attempt to sketch a portrait of a conservationist. They include things to know, things to notice, things to remember, things to learn how to do, things to feel, things to question, things to respect, and things to love.
Together they suggest that conservation is not simply about protecting nature.
It is about caring for relationships: between people and place, between economy and ecology, between what we inherit and what we leave behind.
It is about learning to pay attention.
This is not intended to be a list of everything a conservationist should know, it is an invitation to think about the kind of person a conservationist might aspire to become. It can be read or randomly picked into for whatever catches your eye.
The underlying theme recognises that people rarely protect what they merely understand. They protect what they know and love.
- Originally published in Sorkin’s book “What Goes Up” in 2018.