Doing Conservation Differently. A discussion on climate action research with Anna Zivian, Ph.D.

Trailblazer Interview with Anna Zivian, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow at Ocean Conservancy, October 2022

Anna works on ocean climate change mitigation, adaptation, equity, and justice as part of Ocean Conservancy's science-based programs. She is the chair of the Ocean Knowledge-Action Network Development Team and co-chair of the Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions (GEOS), which unites diverse expertise in environmental policy, science, and society. 

Hi Anna, great to meet you. Thank you for the opportunity to talk. What are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on a variety of projects.

I'm helping with Ocean Conservancy's new climate, plastics, and environmental justice nexus work. We focus on trash because plastic production has strong climate effects; from extraction to the end of life, and plastics, which are almost all produced from fossil fuels, seriously impact environmental justice and communities. We have a long-standing trash-free seas program that has to date worked most closely on end-of-the-pipe initiatives such as cleanups and waste management. Now we are increasingly looking upstream and working with corporate entities.

We are also exploring how we might engage on deep sea mining and subjects like ocean-based carbon dioxide removal, including nature-based solutions and geoengineering.

Then I have a project on doing conservation differently. The goal is to see how conservation can be more successful in the future. The underlying premise is that in 100 years of western style conservation, we've had a lot of successes, but overall we are not succeeding. The existential crises of our time: climate change, biodiversity loss, and lack of equity and justice, continue to intensify. Western-style conservation comes from a history of fortress conservation, the idea of a human-nature dichotomy, and the same white supremacist, colonial background and systems that created (and are exacerbating) our problems.

Could you walk me through the process of researching, validating, and ultimately operationalizing opportunities?

The goal is to turn research projects into action and to see what promising areas for action there are. 

First, I focus on background and desk research. That includes reading case studies, articles, and academic literature and interviewing researchers and practitioners. Then, we often discuss findings with an internal working group and identify others' experiences and perspectives. Together we synthesize the research and determine if there are actionable ideas that we can operationalize with pilot projects. 

Piloting new approaches and uniting networks of people to innovate together helps scale and inform more diverse and collective action. An approach can be scaled up or out through vertical and horizontal diffusion. Finding test cases where it's possible to work at different scales and then connecting and figuring out how to broaden the project's impact amplifies and accelerates progress. That can be funding a community to do independent work or bringing together a multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary working group. 

There is a great opportunity to work with other NGOs and organizations to pilot projects, connect more, and experiment. As a result, Ocean Conservancy is working on various pilot projects. For example, Indigenous-led marine conservation in the Arctic, grassroots work with ports and communities, and subnational work in Florida. We're continuously exploring new opportunities and working closely with our ocean justice team on ideas such as the rights of nature.

How did you get into this work?

I have a roundabout tale. I did Russian and Soviet studies in my undergrad, which would appear unrelated, but taught me about international politics and history.

After undergrad, I wanted to be an athlete. I competed in freestyle skiing and also wanted to be a sports reporter, so I went to one semester of a Master's of journalism program in Berkeley before dropping out to compete in freestyle skiing. While the program was more oriented towards hard news, like business news, my sports writing class was excellent. Then I tore my ACL twice in one year. I couldn't compete in skiing and was living in Telluride, Colorado, where I grew up. So I thought, I've lived here a long time, I’m smart, I'll run for office since only seven people were running for five positions on the Town Council. I was the third-highest vote-getter behind two incumbents and got a seat on the Telluride Town Council. While working there, I began applying my long-held interest in environmental issues. Having grown up in Colorado and New York, I saw both urban and wild environments and became interested in the role of local government in promoting environmental policy. While I was on council, I didn’t like the policies at the county, so decided to runfor county commissioner, first in a primary against the incumbent, then for the general,and I won quite handily. After a second term, I had been in local government for ten years. That seemed like enough, so I went to grad school for environmental studies in Santa Cruz. 

One of my case studies for my dissertation, which was on the role of subnational government in regulating GMOs in the US and the European Union, was on transgenic salmon in California. California has banned open ocean transgenic aquaculture and has a permitting process for any transgenic aquaculture. While in the program, I participated in a reading group on ocean governance led by Denny Kelso that discussed the idea of a national ocean policy.

When I was finishing my dissertation for my Ph.D. in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I reached out to Denny. He connected me with Ocean Conservancy, which was looking to hire somebody for the coastal and marine spatial planning program, which we now call ocean planning. My background as an elected official, where most of what we did was planning, and zoning, and land use, was very relevant for ocean planning. So I started ocean work and was with the ocean planning team for four years. Then, I had a brief period of knowledge management work, looking primarily at how to work in networked ways. After that, I switched to the science team, where I've been for seven years. My diverse background has come together and led me to where I am now, working on my current research project of doing conservation differently. 

How do you explain the current environmental challenges we are facing?

We face existential crises and challenges that will fundamentally shift our societies, our environment, and the world we know. We are rapidly approaching tipping points that will shift us into new states where we may not survive. Therefore climate change, biodiversity, and questions of equity and justice are fundamental. 

How has your diverse professional experience inspired your work on climate?

During my undergrad in Russian and Soviet studies, I studied fascism and totalitarianism. That's actually very relevant for understanding particular governance challenges that we're facing now! My study didn't necessarily give me answers, but it gave me insight and historical context. During my work as an elected official, I got to experience working with people with different perspectives, understanding how economic imperatives affected people and the environment, and how policy decisions did the same. Bringing practical experience into research experience and combining my background as a practitioner in policy and advocacy, as well as research here at Ocean Conservancy, allows me to draw diverse information together and thereby research complex, interlinked topics. 

What are some of climate work's most significant opportunities/unaddressed areas? 

Indigenous communities have a long-standing knowledge of particular places. With that knowledge comes a good understanding of what will make something sustainable and what durable adaptation techniques will enable long-standing adaptation. Not all approaches will work, but some will. It's essential to valorize Indigenous knowledge and not just integrate it because that still gives precedence to western science. Instead, we need to see Indigenous knowledge as a starting point. 

It's essential to work in multi-scalar ways for sustainability because policy decisions have global impacts. The role of subnational government is also vital since specific places feel the effects of policy and climate. Impacts that extend beyond boundaries, such as the ozone layer with the Montreal Protocol, are best addressed through international agreements. There are other initiatives where local government is more creative and well-situated to understand the impacts on communities and address communities' and local environments' needs.

What gives you hope within climate work?

It is inspiring that people starting this work and newly entering the field have different outlooks and innovative ideas.

More people are seeing the interconnectedness of societal and environmental issues and how you can't separate people from their environment, whether it's their political environment, economic environment, or natural environment. That makes me hopeful that there is a much better understanding of how things are connected, that the existing structures and institutions need to change, and that we need a stronger focus on equity, justice, and sustainability. We are in a time where more and more people do not see challenges to the existing system as being on the fringe. Now we can discuss and workshop alternative ideas. That all gives me hope

What will it take to accelerate the development of solutions in the near term?

I think it will take a combination of inside-outside work. It will take forming alliances with different people working in various organizations and diverse aspects of shared problems. We can't solve issues of the magnitude we are facing by ourselves. We need to make connections and use partnerships. The fact that these are now crises that people are beginning to feel and see will help us even though the problems are accelerating. I think it will also allow us to start implementing the solutions. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act is not what everybody wanted since it's not enough and not the kind of radical change we need. At the same time, it's so much more than we've had in over 40 years. That inspires hope and action. Now, I think people are seeing this as a start.

And what books and learning have been most impactful for you? What do you recommend,

Pollution is Colonialism was very inspiring. The book had great ideas on how we decolonialize science that also apply to other institutions.

How can we inspire individuals to feel like they can make a difference, and what advice do you have for someone new to working on climate? 

Where there is fear, there is also the potential for inspiration. Working in communities is inspirational and brings hope. Seeing other people out there who are supporting what you're doing, even on an individual level, can make you hopeful. Seeing that we did make a difference with our votes can make people optimistic. Working with others with a shared purpose inspires hope and adds momentum to collective action. 

Be creative. Support other people and build your network so that you can do things collectively. Don't hesitate to offer your opinions and ideas.