224: Conservation Labour with Anwesha Dutta and Nick Harvey Sky
From Conservation and Science by Tommy's Outdoors
March 31, 2026 · 1h 12m
About this episode
The episode explores the often overlooked aspects of conservation labor and the people behind it with insights from Dr. Anwesha Dutta and Dr. Nick Harvey Sky.
Working in conservation? Take the survey: CONLAB survey Who are the people doing the actual work of conservation? How many of them are there and what are their working conditions? And whose labour remains invisible in the process? These are not questions that conservation science has spent much time on. Yet without understanding the people behind the work, we lack a complete picture of how conservation functions and who it affects. Today, we take on this largely neglected subject with Dr Anwesha Dutta, principal investigator and project lead of CONLAB (Conservation Labor Project), and Dr Nick Harvey Sky, postdoctoral researcher on the project. Their work sits at the intersection of political ecology and conservation science, and their work is opening up an entirely new line of inquiry. During our conversation, Anwesha and Nick explain how labour theory can offer important insights into conservation. We discuss the power dynamics between employers and workers, the role of unpaid work, and how race, class and gender shape who gets opportunities in the sector. We also talk about the global survey they are running to capture the big picture of conservation labour worldwide. Nick…
People in this episode
Host: Tommy
Guests: Anwesha Dutta, Nick Harvey Sky
Topics covered
- conservation
- labour theory
- political ecology
- working conditions
- power dynamics
- global survey
Keywords
- conservation
- labour
- political ecology
- working conditions
- survey
- power dynamics
- unpaid work
- race
- class
- gender
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: CONLAB, Conservation Labor Project
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