Buddha Nature: Mobilizing Buddhist Ethics to Curb Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia
Join us on July 2nd at UTC 14:00 for a talk on "Mobilizing Buddhist Ethics to Curb Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia" by Dr Barbara Maas, Secretary Environment & Conservation of International Buddhist Confederation.
The talk is about The Buddha Nature Project which was implemented across key locations in Bhutan, Mongolia, and Vietnam where it set out to combine 2500 years of Buddhist wisdom with contemporary science to reduce demand for, and consumption of, wildlife to mitigate biodiversity loss and zoonotic disease risks. Buddha Nature pursued the idea that behavioural transformation can emerge not only through policy and enforcement but also through moral reflection, cultural storytelling, and community-led education that connects scientific understanding with spiritual ethics. Buddha Nature demonstrated that value and faith-based conservation can be scalable, replicable, and impactful in both rural and urban settings when tailored to local contexts.
Dr Barbara Maas has worked in international wildlife conservation and animal welfare for three decades. A wildlife biologist by training, her career began with a Ph.D. in behavioural ecology from the University of Cambridge before taking up a postdoctoral position at Oxford University. In the following decades she worked for both NGOs and the public sector. Barbara’s work stands out for its synthesis of different academic disciplines, including ecology, veterinary, behavioural and conservation sciences, wildlife trade, and ethics. Her work has informed and served to improve numerous international wildlife trade policies, laws, and practices. She currently works as Head of Endangered Species Conservation for the German conservation organisation NABU International, serves as the Steering Committee member for Biodiversity and Wildlife Trade at the International Alliance Against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade, Secretary for Environment and Conservation of the International Buddhist Confederation since 2013, and CEO of the UK-based volunteer-run charity People for Nature and Peace.