Mission & Vision

Mission Statement

The INSAKA Consortium is an African-led community of practice bringing conservation researchers and practitioners together to address complex socio-ecological problems. Student development and direct engagement with institutions enables our diverse membership to form a holistic understanding of African conservation through systems thinking.

Vision

INSAKA aims to deploy and invite all to join our community of practice to inform integrative solutions to the ecological, social, and climate challenges for the future of conservation in sub-Saharan Africa.

History of INSAKA

The INSAKA Consortium’s roots begin with the Treehouse Research Programme, a research partnership between the University of Montana and the University of KwaZulu-Natal convened yearly from 1998-2008. Treehouse brought together ecologists from KwaZulu-Natal and social scientists from Montana to assist managers from SANParks and the US Forest Service to effectively collaborate within a systems thinking framework. By 2007, the effective collaboration of Treehouse had proven fruitful, and the decision was made to expand through the network of participants from universities and institutions across southern Africa.

Through a multi-year development process, the Treehouse Research Programme laid the groundwork, bringing in the University of Namibia and Copperbelt University in 2009. In 2010 INSAKA was officially inaugurated with a new MOU adding Monash South Africa, now IIE MSA. The name INSAKA, a Bemba word meaning a place for the community to meet, was chosen to represent the ambition of our community of practice and the desire to develop shared understandings of the complex socio-ecological systems where we focus our work.

Since 2010 the annual INSAKA Consortium Conference had expanded our community of practice and continually added areas of conservation experience by seeking out thought-provoking ways to engage practitioners and academics. By 2018, Clemson University joined the INSAKA bringing expertise in recreation and protected area management. After a three year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, INSAKA reconvened in Livingston, Zambia for the 2023 conference to share research and discuss strategic changes our mission to include student development. Following the 2023 INSAKA conference, the University of Botswana formally joined as a partner university to continue our aim of expanding our footprint in the region.

With renewed vigor the INSAKA Consortium convened the 2024 conference in Kasane, Botswana with our newest member the University of Botswana hosting. Strategic developments were incorporated with an emphasis on student development, collaborative meetings with two key regional institutions the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Park headquarters, and the CARACAL Biodiversity Center.