Organizers: CALLISTO-Wildlife and Nature Conservation Society (Dr. Tasos Hovardas, Dr. Dimitris Bormpoudakis, Alexandros Poulakis).

This workshop aims to valorise experience gained through participatory processes in the frame of LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors and ongoing work within the Horizon Europe project titled Co-creating Coexistence, which analyses the best ways emergent technologies can promote human-bear coexistence. The workshop will run in two cycles. In the first, we will present results of scientific and grey literature review on emergent technologies, as well as results of a European-wide survey of more than 1000 pastoralists concentrated on knowledge of and use of technology as well as perceived importance of determinants of technology use. In the second cycle, we will use participatory methods to gather and elaborate on workshop participants’ assessment of emerging coexistence technologies (based on e.g., functionality; scale; technology readiness level) and related utility factors (e.g., perceived and actual effectiveness; affordability; interoperability; socio-cultural acceptance). Participants will receive a report with presentations and assessments. The overall ambition of the workshop is to showcase how technology can be utilized by communities and pastoralists for fostering coexistence.