Charles Clark, Ph.D. Rural Sociologist and specialist in issues of North American and Latin American sustainability and resource stewardship

I joined Conservation Imaging as a Board Member several years ago because I was impressed by its interest in detailing and mapping environmental issues on an international level. We at Conservation Imaging share an active interest in promoting scientific methodology to provide an analysis of human impacts on biodiversity that also can provide solutions to environmental problems of all sorts. Having worked as a forest technician in reforestation and stand inventory, I have seen first hand how improper forest management, lacking adequate scientific basis, has severely impacted highland forest ecosystems, riparian areas, and aquatic habitat. Having worked as an environmentalist, I have encountered the difficulty of using science and scientific findings in mediating disputes between different community interest groups. And, having taught university courses in environmental sociology and social inequality, I have learned of the importance of finding ways to better convert scientific findings into a popular vernacular that assists learning and cooperation in the public.

Conservation Imaging is dedicated to the pursuit of ecological integrity over broad ecological areas through the designation and description of ecological niches and their relationships to other ecological areas. Thus, a broad perspective is developed using increasingly complex and finite data - retaining the big picture while emphasizing details. That is the value of scientific theory, the establishment of broad theoretical concepts based in the relationships indicated in the accumulation of specific field data and information. I bring an understanding of social conflict, social capital, and social networks to the discussion of environmental issues at Conservation Imaging. Most environmental problems are rooted in our social systems, making the study of ecology necessarily a study of the attitudes of the public and the management procedures chosen to manage ecosystems.