Relational Conservation: Undisciplining Community-Based Fieldwork in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

In many southern African protected areas, religion and culture strongly influence how people initiate, adopt, or oppose conservation initiatives. If conservationists are unable to effectively engage with local communities, the result is often poor participation and failed conservation programs, particularly those operating under Western colonial paradigms. Contemplative inquiry has recently emerged as a promising relational, embodied, and dialogical approach to community engagement that also supports decolonial processes. This paper explores decolonial, relational and contemplative approaches to community-based fieldwork in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Included are reflections on ethnographic interviews with Batswana conservation practitioners whose research lies at the intersection of Euro-Western environmentalism and an African relational ontology. This humanities-science transdisciplinary exploration challenges normative boundaries between intellectual territories and engages civil society beyond academia. It aims to “undiscipline” religion and conservation science, make a measurable contribution to conservation practice, and connect diverse knowledges in academia and civil society to address real-world ecological challenges.