10. Amy Dickman on the future of conservation

Can lions and people thrive together? What if protecting large carnivores means questioning some of conservation’s most deeply held beliefs?    Conservationist Professor Amy Dickman joins Matt Pycroft to examine who pays the price for keeping dangerous wildlife alive and who gets to decide what the future of conservation should look like. Drawing on more than two decades of work in Africa, she argues that lions cannot survive through distant affection, fenced reserves or international promises alone. They need social licence from the people sharing their landscapes – and achieving that is far from simple.    The conversation moves from community-run camera trapping in Tanzania to trophy hunting, mining, racism, “parachute science” and the uncomfortable economics of nature. Amy Dickman explains why conservationists must engage with governments, businesses and communities whose priorities may conflict with their own, while remaining honest about their central purpose.    This is also a candid reckoning with exploration itself, particularly in the context of wildlife conservation: who frames the questions, who owns the data and whose knowledge carries authority? The result is a compelling case for evidence, compromise and local-led conservation, built not around outsiders imposing answers but around the difficult work of creating a biodiverse future chosen by those on the ground.